Same Side
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Chapter Ten: Crouching Hybrid, Hidden Robot
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"Dahm da-dahm dahm, dahm!" sang the bright green Twin, sauntering with the grace of a two point five ton robot under the cover of dense foliage. In a very non-ninja-like manner, he tip-toed towards the aft end of the big alien ship where the supposed hangar bay entrance would be. "This robot is on da lose, so ya better run and hide, 'cause we the Twins without no limits, so ya'll prepare ta die, dah-damn, dahm!"
"That don' even rhyme, stupid-aft!" his red-orange brother berated him from nearby. The tip of his metal foot hit a protruding rock and he went careening forward"You ain't never been on a mission before, or wha? Stop singin' an' look around for possible contacts."
"The only contact you gonna get is ma foot up yo aft, Mudface. We done this hundreds of times. 'Scuse me for tryin' to express ma genuine creativity, jus' 'cause you don't got some."
"How we s'posed to get in an' out undetected with you yappin' it up all the time?" A large metal hand 'thwacked' the green Autobot over the head from behind.
Respectively, their specialty was infiltration—back on Cybertron, of course, it was easier to infiltrate the ranks of other big robotic lifeforms, since they could blend in with style. Even on Earth, they could get into all kinds of fun places inside big human cities without a security camera laying a single frame on them. Neither one would admit it, but their skills didn't extend so much to getting inside a slimy life-sucking alien spaceship without being detected, let alone getting out again with all their parts intact. That's why they needed the Fluffball and his other human friends to make a distraction so they could get in and out quickly.
"Why we even doin' this?" asked Skids, ducking under a low tree branch. The pair sloshed through a stream, getting even closer to the enbankment that concealed the cruiser from view. "Who's messed-up plan put us out here anyway?"
"If you'd been listenin' to Ratchet back at da Compound, like you was s'posed to--"
It was then they crested the small cliff that overlooked the alien cruiser, and Mudflap went silent. A moment later, he said, "Damn, tha's a big motha..."
"Hey, Fluffball, we got our eyes on yo prize," Skids delivered to the colonel's radio, swinging down to the even ground below via a branch as thick as his right arm. "Wha's da hold up?"
"Just taking down the last of the welcoming party," Fluffball's voice came over the Autobot's receptor. "Stick to the plan, guys. Don't go any further until the bay doors are open."
"This boy think we're suicidal or what?" Mudflap asked his brother, shaking his head. There was no sign of life around the landed cruiser, but they weren't crazy. The idea of infiltration didn't involve charging straight up to the enemy's domain and blowing things up.
On second thought, maybe it did.
Fifteen seconds later, a vertical split appeared in the cruiser's hull and began to slide open. Three Darts came screaming out of the hangar inside, followed by two more that swooped in a wide arc aroud the ship's 'wing' and disappeared. Mudflap shoved his twin forward. "It's hot out here. Let's make it rain."
Together, the Twins leapt down the embankment and began to sprint for the steadily closing hangar bay door. As they barreled down on the ship, two more Darts shot out of the shrinking gap and split apart, coming straight at the pair of Autobots from either side. Skids dove and rolled ungently across the flat stones, creating a spray of sparks that were lost in the explosion of blue light behind him. Just as with the Darts back on P4M-426, their weapons were designed to destroy rather than stun.
Mudflap opened up a barrage of super-heated bullets on the screamer that bore down on him. Its left wing burst into smoke and flame and it veered out of control before slamming into a tree. The second Dart was already starting to bank around to fly back at them, but the Twins weren't dumb. They clambered up to the bay door, and tumbled through the opening before it clammed got to their feet looked around the rather sizable hangar with widened optics.
"Masta-ful. Now dis is a crib," remarked Skids, sauntering forward. "I think I see our target straight up there, on that pillar thingy. Lemme have those fireworks."
"Aw, damn. Uh, oh." Mudflap was poking and searching around the compartment on his left arm, where he'd kept the C4 given to them by the humans. "I think I lost it."
The red Autobot almost collided with his twin when Skids stopped on the narrow bridge. Skids jabbed a finger at him. "How d'ya lose an explosive? That ain't even stupid, it's plain dumbass, s'what that is."
If Mudflap had a retort, it was lost when a sudden flurry of blue bolts shot past them. Battle instinct drove both of the twins to roll out of the way, though some of the stunner blasts hit their armour. Most glanced off without affecting them, but one struck Skids in the vulnerable circuits where his leg met his body. Another hit the circuits under his shin. "Ow, ow! There's two of us! Why ya'll pickin' on me?"
It wasn't long before the group of five human-like Wraith hybrids that had gathered on the platform ahead were downed by the Autobot's superior guns. Skids hopped forward on one leg, cussing about the strange twitchiness of the affected servos from the stunner. They reached the tower-like console in the middle of the platform, one that seemed to stretch to the ceiling of the hangar. It had a glowing, slimy screen on it and some even slimier-looking buttons grafted on its surface.
"I'm gonna have nightmares 'bout this place," Mudflap complained, nudging one of the hybrid's bodies aside with a metal foot. He tapped into Sheppard's radio, glancing around the strangely dormant hangar at the same time. "Hey, uh...Sheppard, we got a problem."
Amidst the racket of gunfire and wailing Darts, Fluffball's voice came back, "Enlighten me."
"Well see, Skids made me drop dat bomb you gave us," the Autobot lied, which earned him a punch from behind. "Ow! I mean, uh...we got no boom for the room. Wha's the plan?"
"I already told you the plan. Make that console blow up somehow—I don't care how, just figure it out. Get out here as soon as you can. We can't hold out here forever."
"Somethin' crawled up his aft an' died," said Mudflap when the radio went silent. He rapped on the tall metal console with his knuckles, as the sound echoed around the chamber. "Now how we gonna get out with the door all jammed up like that?"
"Uh oh, I think we movin'," his twin pointed out, a second before the bridge under their feet gave a sudden lurch. The entire ship aroud them began to tremble with life and emit an airy hum as it prepared to take off. "I don' like this."
"A'ight, now this robot's mad," Mudflap proclaimed, making a fist with his larger left hand. He lifted it high and brought it down heavily on the console. With both hands, he struck the alien machine over and over again. "Nobody. Captures. Da twins. Alive! Take this! How's that feel?"
As more and more pieces came breaking off the towering structure, it seemed the only damage it took was superficial. But with one last sledgehammering fist to the controls, it released a loud screeching sound, making the red Autobot jump back. A bright red light began to flash in the center of the broken console. The screeching sound, not unlike a weird alien version of an alarm, continued to echo through the hangar over and over again.
"Good job, dumbaft! Now we stuck inside da ship about to esplode!" Skids said, shoving his twin away from the machine.
"No we ain't!" cried Mudflap, just as his exclamation came true. Almost seconds after the klaxons went off, many of the Darts inside the hangar had sprung to life. But rather than take any interest in the twin Autobots in the center of the chamber, they made a beeline for the bay doors. The first half dozen or so were already through the narrow, widening crack in the hull.
The Twins didn't waste a moment. Simultaneously, they transformed into their faster alternate modes and burned rubber to accelerate down the thin strip of bridge towards the hangar door. With a cloud of Wraith Darts behind them, they shot straight out into the open air...and began to fall. There was no telling how high the cruiser had managed to lift off, but the pair of them returned to their bipedal forms and plummetted, screaming for dear life.
Fifty feet or so later, Mudflap crashed into a field and rolled over half a dozen times before getting on his feet. His brother was less lucky, and bounced along for a good ten seconds before hitting an inconspicuous boulder in a miniature symphony of pings and clangs. They both barely managed to wobble to their feet and assess their damage before they were distracted by the sounds of battle.
Sheppard, Ronon and Epps were all nearby, a distance of a hundred yards or so away, crouching behind various landscape objects to shield themselves from the oncoming Dart assault. Trailbreaker and Ratchet were unleashing a small arsenal on the swarm of ships with their back to the Stargate—which was unsurprisingly active—but it didn't take a genius to see they were outnumbered. Ironhide was in front of them, doing most of the damage to the swarm of attackers, but even his cannons couldn't charge and fire fast enough to turn the tide of the battle. Yelling out various insults, Trailbreaker dashed back and forth, switching between his broad yellow energy barrier and what looked and sounded like a mini-railgun. It was all very effective, but still not enough.
"Good to see you back in once piece, guys," came Sergeant Epps' voice over the Twins' receptors. "When that thing took off, I figured we'd seen the last of you."
They were enveloped by a chaotic mess of two dozen Darts criss-crossing over the field, deploying their culling beams in random patterns over the solid stone and dry grass. Ratchet and Trailbreaker held their own, staying well out of the beams as they swept by and Ironhide made sure to shoot down any Dart foolish enough to try and capture him. Sheppard, his two human teammates and the four other soldiers in their strike team were having a little more trouble finding cover.
Then the cruiser exploded.
Being so close to the ground, the concussive force of the ship's detonation knocked all of the participants on the battleground off their feet. Ratchet, Ironhide and Trailbreaker rushed to put themselves between the closest humans and the shower of enormous shrapnel, some of which landed heavily on the yellow bubble that crackled around the blue Autobot. Many of the Darts found pieces of the cruiser spearing them through, causing more wreckage to crash to the ground in angry, fiery boils. The ship's carcass itself hit the planet with a knee-shaking earthquake, filling the air with dust and hot embers.
"Fall back to the 'gate!" Sheppard ordered over the radio. There weren't enough trees nearby to provide good cover for the Autobots, and the 'gate was the only thing they had to protect against the onslaught. The Twins, already halfway down the field, began to charge across the field towards the colonel.
"There's still Darts in the air! I repeat, Darts are incoming! Watch your six!"
Epps' warning came moments too late. Mudflap aimed his single-barrel at the wailing Dart that was bearing down on them from behind and his first three shots went wide of its sleek body. Sheppard and Ronon focused their fire on the same Dart, but they were too far out of range. It flew high overhead, whisking rapidly towards Skids' and engaged its culling beam. Skids took a dive as the translucent light washed right past him and over the next Autobot in line. Ironhide raised his arm to fire a split second before he vanished inside the beam.
All at once, the remaining Darts in the air turned into a tight, straight-arrow formation and made a mad dash for the active Stargate. With a series of 'schloops', they slipped into the blue portal. Having dove to one side, Sheppard now looked up just in time to watch the last of their fleet making a run for the 'gate before it closed. Digging his shoulder into the earth, he lifted his P90 and took very careful aim. He opened fire.
The last Dart hit the ground nose-first, went spinning end-over-end and slid to a stop in the middle of the field in a spray of dirt. At the same time, the Stargate hissed shut.
It went from distractingly noisy to dead silence in less than a moment. As the dust cloud that hovered over their heads and between bodies thickened into smog of defeat, Ronon and Epps slowly got to their feet. Sheppard, foot numbed by a stunner blast, got back up with the Satedan's help. Everyone was quiet in the wake of the abduction.
"Damn it," the colonel swore, rubbing the dirt out of his eyes. "I should've ordered a retreat behind the 'gate sooner."
"Is that the one that took Ironhide?" asked Ronon, jerking his head towards the downed Dart.
Sheppard turned his head to look at it. "No. It got away." When Ronon lifted his blaster and started to close in on the Dart, he grabbed his arm. "Wait! We need the pilot alive. If he's alive, he'll know the 'gate address to planet they just went to."
"Where are they taking him?" Lennox said, voice hoarse from inhaling the dust and from shouting during the battle.
"I've got a pretty good guess, but you're not gonna like it," the colonel replied, an apologetic twinge coming to his face. "They dialed the 'gate from the cruiser, so we couldn't read it on the DHD." He didn't bother adding that the 'gates in the Pegasus galaxy were a little more advanced, and would have showed the address anyway. It was strange, missing some part of the alien galaxy he'd tried to forget for the past two months.
None of the trio moved as they watched Ratchet drop his guard and approach the Stargate, shaking his head slowly. Trailbreaker looked around awkwardly, like he didn't believe what he'd just seen. Feeling awkward about the whole situation, Sheppard averted his eyes. He knew how he'd feel if one of his teammates was taken by Michael's people; in fact, he had felt it before, on more than one occasion.
"Major Lennox, sir, we can't locate Lieutenant Marshall," a voice came over the radio attached to the major's vest. "We think it's possible he was taken by one of the enemy aircraft."
"What's your status, Sergeant? How many men did we lose?" asked Lennox, breaking away from the group and walking towards the place where Ratchet stood.
"Other than Lieutenant Marshall, all present and accounted for, sir. They had us on the run for a few seconds, but we managed to took down two ships. Both pilots died on impact. We're about half a click south of your position, sir. I think."
"Alright. Head back, but be on the lookout for stragglers. I don't think this is over." In Lennox's eyes, it wasn't over until he figured out what had just happened to Ironhide. Until now, the prospect of an Autobot getting taken by the aliens' culling beams had just been a precautionary theory. With the obvious lack of a large, imposing black truck in the immediate area, that theory was now the truth. A very conspicuous and inconvenient truth.
"What do we do now?" Trailbreaker asked, giving the Stargate an irritated poke. "I know I'm new to this, but that can't be part of the plan, right?" No one answered him, which was an answer in itself.
The cockpit of the Dart that Sheppard had brought down was a gaping hole by the time he and his other teammates came close. At first, it looked as though it were empty. Then a disoriented groan put the three heavily armed men on alert. Lennox and Sheppard circled around the downed aircraft until the pilot came into view—a half-conscious hybrid with blood trickling down his face, slung over the side of the Dart in a partial attempt to escape.
Sheppard cocked his P90 loudly, to get the hybrid's attention. "Hey, there. Let's make a deal. We'll get you the medical attention you need, if you answer our questions."
He knew the hybrids weren't as desperate as the Wraith, at least not enough to use self-destruction as a last resort in defiance of their human captors. It was still good to be wary, even with four other robots with enough firepower to kill this guy five hundred times over hanging around.
"I...am dead...one way or another..." The pilot's slurred words broke through sticky, bloody lips. "Just kill me."
"First tell us where your friends took our people," said Lennox, with a little more ire than his colonel counterpart. "This isn't my first interrogation, soldier. I don't think any of my other robot buddies would have a problem with doing the honours, so you choose: me or them."
Apparently, this hybrid either had previous dealings with the Decepticons and thought of large robotic torture, or the blurred sight of angry-looking fifteen-foot tall robots with weapons provoked his need for survival. If he'd been a Wraith, the answer would have been short and most likely included the words 'savour' and 'defiance', but the pilot had many of his human instincts and memories intact. "I want...my freedom," he hissed. "Passage...through the Ring of the Ancients...in exchange for the address..."
"Sure," lied Sheppard, smirking. "Ronon, mind giving the good pilot a hand?"
Both Epps and Ronon helped the injured hybrid to his feet. With one pale, sickly green arms around the shoulders of both men, the pilot of the Dart moved without so much as a complaint to the nearby DHD, where the Autobots were waiting. The Twins powered up their guns in unison, and pointed them in the hybrid's face. This drew the inquiring glances of their human team members.
"We jus' makin' sure he feels the love," Skids explained, as though it were obvious.
"No, no," Sheppard warned, lifting his P90 again as the hybrid reached for the DHD's buttons. "You get to leave after you give us the right address. Now would be nice."
The hybrid pilot gave the colonel a look that radiated hatred, but withdrew his hand. "How do I know...that you will honour the agreement..."
"Because either you die right now, or you tell us what we need to know and hope we're men of our word," Lennox shot back. "I don't know about the rest of my men, but I don't have much patience when it comes to rescuing my people. Give us the damn address!"
In a bold act of stubbornness, the hybrid stood there and did not move. It took a few moments for Lennox to struggle with his anger and respond. "He's all yours, boys."
"Payback time, bitch." The barrel of the red Twin's gun hummed as it prepared to fire.
"Wait!" the hybrid growled. Lennox help up a hand, signaling the two Autobots to stand down, which they did with extreme prejudice. "I do not know where they have...taken the machine, but...I can trade you this..." He pulled from a pocket in his ragged uniform a strangely shaped object: a Wraith storage device. "This contains the location of all...of our outposts in this galaxy...it will be at the most heavily guarded..." With a painful grunt, the pilot doubled over and dropped the device.
Ronon looked to Sheppard, and the colonel nodded. With a single motion, the Satedan switched his blaster to stun and fired. The hybrid collapsed on the ground with an airy wheeze.
"We need to get back to Earth, now," Sheppard announced, before either Lennox or Epps could question the silent order. He looked at both non-Atlantis personnel as Ronon bent over to sling the unconscious pilot over his shoulder."McKay needs to take a look at this device. Knowing Michael, the more time we spend here, the less chance we'll have to rescue them."
"Before what?" asked Epps.
The colonel glanced at him before turning around to face the DHD. "I told you, you're not gonna like it." And he dialed home.
TBC