Project Icegate, Project One
Chapter 10: The War Rages on
None of the three within the Mustang were expecting such a welcome after a full day or so in New York just exploring and hiding from Starscream, Swallowtail wanted to get into a shoot out with the plane but Lake inisted not to. As the Mustang rumbled up the drive way to the gated fence that surrounded the NEST Washington DC base they were not expecting to see a pickup truck that was not an Autobot, Jack was there. With him was Carter.
Lake parked Swallowtail, the hood slipt open and her Unit was spat out "Well, it seems we have visitors." Swallowtail said, her eletric blue eyes had something of a shine to them as she four entered the base, they over heard Jack talking,
"…. Well, Sec Def Keller says to do it and I agree, you guys have full access to the stargate now, we got the data we needed from the planet, its a ball of ice, lots of weird stuff on the other side, but its nothing they we can use, but you guys might know what it is."
"If it is some massive hangars, to you that is" Toi was saying, "Then yeah, its ours. Hopefully the 'Cons forgot about it." Toi went quiet when he spotted Lake and the others entering. "Heya Mustang!" Toi said. Swallowtail snickered at Toi's petname for her.
Carter just stared at the four new arrivals, Lake, Lennox, and Epps she knew and had met briefly, but the forth looked too much like Lake to mistake her, though with blue eyes and strange tattoo marks on her face and neck. Jack spoke up, "Carter, meet Swallowtail, Lake's … car."
"Looks more like Lake's doppleganger" Carter replied, Swallowtail traded looks with Lake, the woman in red just rolled her eyes, as if to say, 'I'll tell you later.' In the mean time however, Lake kept her distance from Carter. Sam turned towards Optimus and Doc, both men were seated at a table, with the rest of them, Toi however stood, leaning against a counter. "The data we recived through the stargate from the MALP said that humans could go there, but the place was freezing cold in itself. I do not think you guys could contend with that much can you ?"
"Nope, not if we really have to." Doc said, Though Toi was overjoyed at the possible driving in snow again. Doc, not so much. "Last I knew, Cybertron Zulu was mostly a moon but fertile as well. So not fully a frozen ball of ice."
"Either way, Keller said that we have to give you guys full access to the Stargate if you want it." Jack said. If they wanted access to it then the gate would have ot be moved. Though Skystorm easily accessed it. After all, she was a Puddlejumper., Jack though was still nervous about being in a Cybertronian's gullet, the fact that he was imn a plane that transformed, and he asked for a drink, and he got it, made him start wondering just what was going on with Earth lately.
Optimus looked at Swallowtail, remembering her choioce, "I for one will decline your offer, Earth is our home now, We cannot go back to Cybertron if we tried, Cybertron is lost to us, but this planet is yet to be. We can yet rebuild it." Optimus said, Doc nodded, though Toi shielded it, he was downcast, but it did not matter, Earth was their home,
"I still wanna go snowbogging!" Toi said. Which made Optimus smile, Swallowtail also smiled.
"You always want to get in the mud, Toi" Swallowtail said. It was then that she noticed Lake head to the kitchen, Carter did as well and stood up and followed. Swallowtail set her wireframe map of the house and kept careful watch. Not wanting to loose Lake again, when lake almost lost her
Lake went right to the fridge, opened it and withdrew a Pepsi from the thing, setting the can on the counter she removed a glass from a nearby cupbard and withdrew a strange looking glass, after adding some ice from the freezer she poured the Pepsi into the glass and turned to Carter, "I'd offer something to drink, but something tells me you already have your fill"
Carter smirked, "I still have not forgotten our last meeting, had it ended under better events things would have transpired differently I think" Sam replied, though she did not like Lake very much, "How long has it been ? Six years since you last saw us ?"
Lake nodded, "Yup, Been having a lot of adventures with much better endings" She said. A smirk on her face, "Now, other then recalling days of then, what a bout days of now ? The Autobots are staying on Earth and do not have need of the Stargate as yet. But that still does not answer why the Alesians are here and visiting us lately. The one that attacked me, Mark, he wanted to kill Wheelie, my watchdog when they first saw him. If only Jack had given him that gravy when he asked for it at the time then none of this would have happened."
"You mean if Jack hadn't zatted you none of this would have happened and we'd have no idea just what on earth you had been doing the last six years." Carter grumbled in reply. Lake was sooo lucky to live with aliens on a daily basis. Lennox though was nice. Epps was too. So with that Carter said, "So what happens now ?"
"I think for now we will try and keep the 'Cons away from SGC, if all else fails Optimus wants to use the Stargate as a fallback connection to Cybertron Zulu, known to you guys as P4E-779, the Ice World." Lake said
"The Decepticons ?" Sam asked, what were those ?
Lake grumbled and threw her hands into the air, wonderful. She had to put up with this now ? "The Decepticons are evil, Skystorm was for a short time one of them until Swallowtail and Optimus destroyed the Unicron control matrix that was controlling her." Lake said. She took a sip of her Pepsi. "The Decepticons hide just as easy as the Autobots do, but I think Lennox and Epps can get you some tech to scan everything and find what is what, if anything has anything remotly Energon connected to it, chances are unless iti s disabled or just carefully watched it might transform into something." Lake explained.
"That still does not explain the crater in the parkilot" Sam grumled.
"Crater on the parking... oh, hah! Swallowtail set a diversion, according ot the report that Swallowtail had recorded I watched it all, she set a charge with enough explosive power to knock out power and also cause enough of a distraction for her and Ironhide to run like mad, it also drew some unwanted eyes in the form of a Massive Decepticon named Hive. A monster of a 'Con, Swallowtail is scared slag-less of him" Lake said.
"So when that bang drew out a bad guy, the bad guy is still around ?" Sam asked
"Possibly, if the Decepticons know of the Stargate, or as the Autobots call it, the Icegate, then yes, they will still be around, and ever trying to get to the Stargate to use it as a weapon of war." Lake replied
"So if we put the Stargate in a public place, and allow you guys to have access to it, which is the plan, the Decepticons might try to take it by force ?" Sam started to get the gears turning, but not quickly enough to keep things running smoothly.
"Possible, but they may also lay low, Starscream is still hurting from the buttkicking Swallowtail peppered him with in New York, we also managed to get some help from Doc and Toi though, antiaircraft is fun to play with." Lake smirked. Sam just stared at her.
"What ? You used antiaircraft guns ?" She looked at Lake, the woman in red looked thin as a reed, yet was insanely strong, and looked to be better then Sam had ever seen her in her life. So that meant two things, either Lake was healed recently or just a fast healer, "never mind that, answer me this and I'll leave you alone, How did you get out of Death Valley ? We marked the location where you were to pick you up later, but when we went there you were gone, nothing was wrong in the area, so we tried scanning for you, but we were not able to find you."
"Lets just say that the Autobots have enough software to make even the SGC jealous" Lake replied with a smirk on her face, she guzzled on her Pepsi, "In fact none of the earth made ships can detect them, only stuff Wheeljack, Impact and Doc has made can detect other Energon signatures, so if you want some tech to help find other 'Bots or 'Cons, I can inform Doc or Impact. Well, just Doc, Impact is busy in Nadis again with Cobalt." Nadis was one of the many valleys on one of the moons of Jupiter.
"Do you really think the Decepticons will try to take the Stargate by force ?" Sam asked,
Lake shrugged, "Cannot say for sure, know only that the Decepticons will want a link back to Cybertron as well, if they cannot take it by force they will try to make a second stargate. Knowing them they could do so."
"Make a second one ? You mean one that will last longer then one time use like in my basement ?" Sam asked, She still needed to get a new toaster.
"Yup, Decepticons make things, though shoddy as they appear, to last as long as possible. Only thing able to take down a Cybertronian is a sabot round." Lake replied with a nod.
"Sabot round, are those things heattreated to a six thousand degree magnesium burn ?" Sam asked.
Lake nodded, "Yup, they melt tank armor like a hot knife through butter. If you want to face a Decepticon and survive, you better be ready to sacrifice some men, If you can face that." Lake said.
"Where can we get some ?" Sam asked,
"Doc could also get you some boomsticks if you had need of them, though the one that Sam used on Starscream only gave that F22 Raptor a headache." Lake mused. Sam, she must have ment that Witwicky fellow.
"Ok, you mentioned some people, Who is Starscream ? Who is Hive, come on, come clean Lake, sometimes I think you are being too crytpical for your own good." Sam grumbled. Lake snickered, finally she was annoying Sam again, she missed doing that, she knew some much about the Cybertronians andn Sam was getting annoyed at just that.
"Starscream is a Decepticon, with Megatron dead, Starscream is in charge, It took two tries to do it, but Megatron has indeed kicked the slag heap. Finally. Though everyone thought Starscream would kick it too, but nope, he's still alive." Lake replied. "Sam is Sam Witwicky, a human. And Swallowtail is my Mustang, you met her already."
"You mean your twin ?" Sam asked, asking once more about Swallowtail, Lakes mustang.
Lake nodded and glared at Sam for the intteruption. "Toi is the Toyota, fellow. And Doc is a DeLorean that can fly..." Lake said, once more Sam intterupted her.
"Wait, a car that can fly ? you're pulling my leg aren't you ?" Sam asked, glaring at Lake, how did she know so much and she didn't ?
"….Nope, Doc is a DeLorean Motor Car, with hoverconversion, so he has flying ablity, he also has cloaking systems too so he can go unseen." Lake said, "Optimus and Ratchet you met, and also Ironhide. Wheelie you may have met, but Frenzy you saw. That white 'Bot with the four white eyes, that was Frenzy." Lake remembered then that Frenzy was present in the SGC when Mark and Lake were fighting in the gate room.
The laptop computer nearby on the table chittered something then made a warbling noise as it transformed after hovering off the table about an inch or so, Brains' screen split into three pieces, the two sides folded, the keybord split into several pieces, and within a minute what had been a Laptop computer from CyberPowerPC was a teddybear sized robot with dark and lime green coloring with black. "Whoa I'm smoken in here Lake!" he said. He hopped off the table, he indeed was smoking. Smoked wafted off his white 'hair'
"Brains ?" Lake asked simply. Sam just stared, she had never seen anything like that before. Carter stared in amazment, watching Brains' every move, a teddy bear sized robot, cute too, reminded her of a plushie Albert Enstien
"Located several Decepticons, some of them work for the Defence Department, however those that do are all Dreads, they are lead by one named Duke, who is commanded over by one Thunderstrike. Know him ?" Brains asked, he ambled over to the counter and clambored up it. Lake nodded. Thunderstrike was an older Seeker, much like Jetfire, only less absent minded, more to the point and far more fun to be around, after all, Toi liked the guy and went mud running with the Hummer whenever possible.
"Well, it turns out that Thunderstrike holds current posting on the Cabinet for the White House, Secretary of the Armed Forces. Works with Sec Def John Keller. Good man, great with a gun too." Brains said, "Not sure if anyone knew this but Thunderstrikes persona on the Table in the White House is Thundarious Stryker." Brains concluded.
Sam perked up at mention of Thunderstrikes name. "General Stryker, I know him, worked with him a few times, he oversaw the forming of Homeworld Security." Carter said. Why was now of all times a time to get information like this ? After the battle in both DC with Knucklebuster and also Skystorm. Who as odd as it was welcomed to the Alesians homeworld. Set in a place of honor apparently. "Why are you telling me this now of all times Lake ?"
"It was not me that told you, Carter, meet Brains, Autobot drone and computer hacker class EP, Brains meet Carter, human hacker, class... null." Lake smirked as she introduced the two.
"Nice to meet ya toots. Nice lookin' gams there... Hey!" Lake swatted Brains on the head, He knew what that meant, he was not allowed to droll over other humans other then Lake, otherwise Frenzy'd rewire his insides. Sam just wondered what the laptop meant, "Anyhow yes, Thunderstrike is a former Decepticon Seeker, an old fellow too. His pretender unit transcanned a General George Hammond a few years ago and been using it ever since only with more hair, just cut really short. The Red Eyes give him away I think as not a normal human, though he acts it well."
"How many Dreads does he have under his control ?' Lake asked, what were Dreads ? Carter was at a loss, Lake continued to smirk, the smirk growing larger every minute as Sam got more and more annoyed.
"Looks like six dozen, all of them hummers, military grade Hummer H1 ECVs." Brains replied. Well, that was news, six dozen Dreads under command of a old fart. Oh joy. "Why ?"
"What are dreads ?" Sam then asked, not knowing things like this was indeed annoying to the Colonel.
"Dreads are like Wreckers, really suicidal, and also really brutal and deadly as hell, Thunderstrike commanded pretty much a full unit of a hundred or so Dreads, when Prima died Thunderstrike defected to neutral and tried to keep to himself" Brains replied, "So far Thunderstrike has done good enough staying on his own. Its why NEST recognised the Autobots when they arrivied, they were also ready for KB, that stratofortress turned tail and took off, literally. Too many Dreads most likely."
Lake looked thoughtful, "Downshift had backup and told noone ?" She asked. That was not good, not smart either, Downshift had insisted to Swallowtail that she was alone, so if she had backup she could have been lying, unless Doc had fpound her to be speaking the truth, and therefore marked it as true, KB was there on someone elses orders and Downshift never knew it.
"She inisted she was alone, even tried telling KB off, didn't do any good until Doc gave him a nosejob" Brains snickered. "Though it was a bummer the Stooges were not able to have fun as they wanted to do so originally., though they managed to cause a pain in the neck to some Decepticlones. General though had first dibs on a Energon tank. Oh, and Prybar just bought a old auto junkyard. Calling it Joes Collision and Scrap. Professional items built while you wait... Must be some Junkion lingo." Brains said.
Prybar was a nice Junkion, Swallowtail went to him regularly for oil changes and made sure to repay him in scrap from car accidents she'd caused leaving the shop every time, so it made things lots of fun for Lake too to visit, having never seen a Junkion before it was hard for her to understand him, he spoke in old AsSeenOnTV type way. It made Lake snicker at mention of Prybar starting a collsion shop.
Lake finished her drink and set the glass into the sink, tossing the can into a container she moved otwards the door, as she did so she spoek to Sam, "I'll talk to Doc about some Energon Signature scanner tech, until then keep your cool, you're nice pretty when you're mad." Lake snickered again, Sam threw her a dirty look.
Lake reentered the livving room of the three storoy mansion. Jack was speaking and making plans with the others in the room, Doc was making notes in the air, seemingly from nothing but holograms. "… I still do not see how exactly these Decepticons fit into the equasion, why did they come here in the first place ? How many of them are there ?"
Optimus was about to answer but Lake spoke first, "A lot. Right now, all you have to worry about is keeping the Stargate from public view. Once that is done things can run smoother Maybe, If you want to go public with the Stargate, that's your trouble. Not ours." Lake said, if Jack wanted to go public it was really up to him in the first place, otherwise things would go as normal.
Jack nodded, "I'll think about it" he said, he then noticed Lake turning to go outside, "Where are you going ?"
Lake snickered, "Outside for some air, why ? Has anyone seen Wheelie and Screecher ?" She looked towards Toi, who snickered and pointed at the backyard. Screecher was... swimming... Wheelie cheering him on.
"Someone tell me that Screecher did not eat more Energon ?" Swallowtail said, giving Wheelie an Energon goodie was bad enough, heck letting him take a bit was overkill, but Wheelie preffered the liquid refined Energon over anything else, so that was a relief.
"Lift gave him an Energon goodie." Doc said, Swallowtail stared at the Delorean slackjawed, "Don't worry, Screecher deserved it for the help he was in DC. If it weren't for him we'd have worse trouble, KB would have landed had Screecher not shorted the main panel for the Pentagon and rewired it to a secondary system. Even rerouted KB as well." Doc explained the mission, Sceecher was able to get to a very mall place that not even Wheelie could reach.
Swallowtail still stared at Doc, but let the matter drop as Lake turned to go outside, the woman in red slid open the sliding door to the backyard and stepped outside onto the patio and moved around the place, looking first back at the house hearing Jack still speaking about plans, and Optimus making his thoughts.
Swallowtail saw Lake leave and standing on the deck looking out to things outside, The Mustang sighed deeply and made her exit from the living room and joined her friend on the deck. Lake was watching the drones swimming and having a blast in the pool. "Optimus told me about your dream." Swallowtail said softly after a minute.
"Really. What else did Optimus tell you." Lake asked thoughtfully. She had met the Primes, was out of it for some time the fact that Downshift drove her home while Battlespike drove Swallowtail home on his trailer. "That I met the Primes, yelled at him to get the Matrix to bring you back ?"
"No, he didn't tell me any of that, but he did tell me that you missed me that much to want me back." Swallowtail said, Lake smiled thinly and nodded, it was true, She had missed her friend so much that she almost decked Optimus where he stood just to get the Matrix to bring Swallowtail back.
"What about you. How do you feel. I was told to merge the Matrix with your spark, do you feel any different. Are you a Prime now too." Lake asked.
Swallowtail smiled, but shook her head, "The Matrix of Leadsership did not choose me, but it did bring me back from the dark. That much is what counted. It's not my time to go, I'll die another day." Swallowtail smiled again. Lake looked at her friend, then back to the pool, Frenzy cannonballed into the water with a splash, Wheelie was jumping around like a puppy gone happy with bones. Screecher was playing submarine.
"You want to swim. Or take a walk." Lake asked after a few minutes, Swallowtail snickered.
"Since when did you swim ?" The Mustang asked her friend. She found it odd that Lake would ask to swim rather then Swallowtail just up and dropping her into the water at times
"I don't know, a while now I think, so, what will it be." Lake turned to Swallowtail, The spark in the Autobot's eyes were enough, they'd take a walk, and most likely end up with her in the river again. "Want to let them know ?"
"Up to you, if you want them to know I'll tell them and meet up with you out front." Swallowtail said, Lake nodded, allowing her friend to go into the house, Lake herself walked ot the end of the dekc and went around the side of the house, thinking as she walked, She had seen Carter, they had p arted ways slighlty better then before... What, Lake halted when she saw Carter outside in the front yard near her rented truck.
"Did not epxect to find you here" Lake said as she neared, ever cautious.
"You never mentioned our last meeting, you mentioned at the SGC that you swore to get even with me, so if you want to hit me, go ahead and take a whack." Sam said. Annoyed was one thing, but keeping up a grudge that long was quiet another.
Lake snickered, "I swore I'd get even with you. But I did not tell you how or when. Just that I would get even, so it is a matter now of when, not how or where. Just when. I'll find you."
"So what happens now ?" Sam asked, the two women stared at each other
"For now we leave in peace, but then ext time we meet, all bets are off, deal." Lake said, she stared at Sam for a long minute, she felt Lennox's eyes on her, but ignored him for the moment, Swallowtail appeared.
Sam finally nodded after a long moment, "Deal. Next time we meet, all bets are off and one of us lands in the infirmary." She said, Lake smirked and turned when Swallowtail appeared, the two then headed off on their walk.
Lennox stepped out onto the drive watching both Mustang and driver walking off. "That's right Lake, keep on walking. Don't look back." He said softly.
Epps joined him and also watched Lake head off with Swallowtail on their daily walk, "You think we'll see NORAD again ?" he asked Lennox, he liked thep lace and wanted to look into it more, but then again h e had more Autobot friends to get used to.
"No idea, I know only one thing, with the Autobots, its best to not worry about that for now." Lennox replied, "It'll happen soon enough." Epps snickered, "Want pancakes ?" He asked his friend. Lennox laughed, both men turned back ot the house and went to the kitchen to make themselves something to eat.
"…..And so, legend tells that Lake continued walking. With her was Swallowtail and the Autobots. Ready to wage war on the Decepticons on Earth and other planets. Lake knew she'd be back to match wits with Carter and O'Neill once more. But, for now, with the war with the Decepticons ahead, she continued walking, ready to meet it head on."
The man sighed and took a deep breath. "And so ends my tale, I hope you enjoyed listening to it as I in the telling of it" He told the man listening and writing down every word. A young man of Spanish-American decent. A reporter of some kind as news of the events in Colorado and New York were made public and the Stargate was a military project of some sort three years after the mission.
"I did yes, but what happened to Lake, what choice was it that she made ?" the man asked. Clearly wondering about the choice that Lake was to make that was mentioned in the story. The choice Swallowtail had to make was clearly seen, she chose simply to stay on earth as her kindred chose to also stay.
"That..." The man replied, "Is a whole 'nother story." he said with a hint of a smile on his face. Lennox liked telling stories to those that would listen, and this mission of many many years ago, and he was now retired. Made it fitting to tell such a tale. Lennox by then was very old. And all but had one foot in the grave. But Lennox was still going strong. There was little that could keep him down.
The reporter stood up then, ready to leave the assisted living home, where Lennox had moved to when his wife died two years before just to put a roof over his head, even though Annabel insisted he come live with her William refused saying he did not want to be a burden on his daughter and her family. Two wonderful children he could tell stories to. "Thank you Mr Lennox, it was a good story to tell, maybe it will make a good book if you put it to writing." He said
"Oh I have" Lennox replied with a laugh, "When it was told to me the first thing I did was write it down, word for word, that was when there were still bookstores to visit." He said shaking the mans hand as he left. He was a good kid, Lennox mused, young, worth telling a thing or two. But telling stories of missions with the Autobots, which were thankfully declassified as it was. Was a good thing. He couldn't get jailed for it or anything now.
As the door closed behind the man a ever familiar rumble was heard as a Mustang pulled into the parking lot, a woman dressed in scarlet red stepped out of the car and another woman who appeared similar to the red clothed woman got into the backseat. Lake entered the assisted living house and Lennox stood as she entered. Lake hadn't aged a bit since he'd last seen her nearly thirty years before! For all Lennox knew Lake was still twenty one. She looked it. But according to official documents, Lake was well past ninety, nearly a hundred, and she nor the Autobots, were ready to quit, yet.
The pair hugged tightly, Then Lake asked him, "Still telling stories William." Her grasp of English still very poor, thankfully the man knew Mandarin very well, well enough to get by, Cybertronian too.
"Just to keep the kids busy." Lennox replied. He then saw the concern in her eyes, "What is it ?" Whenever there was that concerned look in the red clothed womans eyes that got William Lennox ready for the worst. But then sometimes, he'd take much worse then loosing fellow soldiers on missions long past
"It's Ray, he wants to see you before he goes on that last mission. As he calls it" She replied. Ray was in the hospital with pneumonia, and he told Lake that he would not go on that last mission until he saw William Lennox, and Swallowtail one last time. With all the missions they'd been through, Lake agreed and left the hospital to fetch Lennox as fast as she could, Ironhide remained at the hospital to keep Ray company as long as he was able.
Lennox nodded and moved towards the door, taking up a ornate cane from near his chair and walking along side Lake, who held the door open, "Its best to see the soldier off then, Ray is a good man, I will miss him." Lennox said. The two moved to Swallowtail, the passenger side door opened without a sound allowing Lennox to get in comfortably as Lake took her place behind the wheel.
Lennox looked at the sign of the rest home he was living the last two years of his life at, he spoke as Lake pulled onto the highway. "You think we can do another mission with the Autobots ?" Lennox asked.
Lake didn't reply, but Swallowtail did, "You think the president would let you ?" Lennox was old yes, b ut not that old, already thirty three when he first met the Autobots, and now nearing seventy five as it was, two open heart surgaries, three lung transplants, and a hip replacement. All of them well worth it over the course of his life.
"Before or after I whack him with my cane ?" Lennox quipped right back, causing Lake to smile as a chirping noise was heard from Swallowtail as the car and driver both laughed, for the first and only time that Lennox knew her, at least that he'd seen.
The End