Long chapter ahead! I would think of this as a huge thank you to all of you readers! We are already at chapter 10 and have more than 85 reviews!
Chapter 10: True Friends Are Discovered In Battle
Five mega-cycles later…
I felt reactivated, reborn, rejuvenated, whatever you wanted to call it. I felt a lot better than I have in a whole quartex, courtesy of Ratchet. He had been very nice to me, although he was never up for pointless chatter. He wasn't like First Aid, always helping with extreme delicacy and carefulness. Not that Ratchet wasn't gentle, he would always checking up on me, but I think he wouldn't have been attending to me with such care and delicacy unless Prowl had asked him to do so.
Ratchet really was a good medic, the best actually. He carried the title of Chief Medical Officer, or CMO for short, and he would check up on me every mega-cycle. Silvershot never left the quarters and for the first time since we had escaped from Railgun, he started making me laugh. Like, really laugh. And I was really grateful for it, because I haven't shared a laugh with him in a little over six joors.
Right now, I was able to move my legs, having them removed from the plaster and gauze and after having them fully repaired. Ratchet told me that both legs were dislocated at the hip, hence why I couldn't move them and there was very minor nerve damage in my frame, nothing he couldn't fix. So in less than a quartex, I was completely repaired and was about to be released.
"I finally get to go back to camp, don't I?" I talked to Silvershot. "It's been quite boring here." I complained from my berth.
"It's no different at the camp, trust me." he even started opening up to me. "Everyone is wondering what happened to you."
"They are? Who?" My brow plates furrowed as I was interested in names.
"Namely Bumblebee and Bluestreak. Cliffjumper was nervous all the time and Springer was no different. You even got some of the superiors' attention."
"I did?"
"Yes. Apparently, you are one of the best behaved cadets they have come across with and they carry a particular liking towards you."
Well, I did approach everyone with respect and politeness. "I think the same would go for you."
"Well… not really."
"Silver, what did you do?" We were brought up the same way and if I had gained a liking in within the superiors, then so would have Silvershot. Unless he had done something that would prove me otherwise.
"Nothing, but they take lightly to femmes, since you are factually the only one there. I presume they'll be nicer to you, once they hear what you've been through."
"No." I quickly cut him off, waving a servo in front of him. "They don't need to know. Nobody has to know."
"Of course they do, they thought you were offlined."
I was confused. "They did? Who told them so?"
"Nobody, it was a conclusion made too soon. And you are never going to offline, not on my watch." I did like it when his protective side kicked in, although it rarely ever did.
"But offlining other mechs for my sake, that's alright?" I gave him a dubious look.
"You know what they did to you." His voice dropped to an almost deadly tone. "You would have done no different if it was me in your place, wouldn't you?" he returned to look, staring deeply into my optics from the chair he was sitting on.
"I wouldn't let them lay a finger on you." I felt a surge of anger travel through my body.
"You see, the feeling is mutual. That is why I offlined them."
"But don't you feel… repentance? I mean, you took a life, Silvershot."
"For what? For hurting Decepticons?" He almost laughed, and I knew he was repressing a snort.
"They weren't Decepticons." I told him. They couldn't be. They were in the Autobot camp, unless they were infiltrators, which was in all likelihood a very large possibility.
"Perhaps yes, perhaps not. We wouldn't know, but they were on the path of becoming ones. They were traitors, attacking their own faction."
"How would you know?" I crossed my arms from the berth I was lying on.
"For one, their behavior. Secondly, their optics. Thirdly, their constant need for harassment and aggression, their use of contraband, their sadistic ways of contact… there are too many things to count, Goldstreak. And then there's what they did to you." His voice turned angry once more. There was no doubt that some of that anger was directed to me, because I had failed to protect myself and have failed to show him that I was independent.
"So you are absolutely satisfied with the outcome." I questioned with a statement.
"More than pleased. Ask your buddy Hot Rod, he was no different. I swear, he really fought against Raidspark. Are you sure you aren't mated with him?"
"No, I'm not." I wondered why the sudden question. "It's just for fun."
"If it was just for fun, then why is his helm in his hands just outside these quarters? The mech couldn't recharge for a couple of mega-cycles." I knew he cared, he did display his emotions a couple of mega-cycles ago, but I didn't think it would go this far.
"You think there's more to it? I didn't really expect him to care in that way..." I looked to my servos, fiddling with them. Was Hot Rod feeling something more?
"I'm saying you should figure it out."
"I'll go see what's with him." I said, slowly putting my legs on the end of my berth up until they slid down, dangling on the edge of the berth.
"I'll help you walk." He offered, getting up from his chair as it creaked.
"No need, I can do this on my own." I told him as I stood up, tentatively taking one step in front of the other. "It's been a while since I last walked."
"As you wish." He shrugged, opening the door and getting out, but leaving the door ajar for me to walk through. It wasn't that hard to walk, it just took some time to find balance, since I hadn't walked for five mega-cycles. I got out of the quarters and saw Hot Rod, sitting in the exact position Silvershot had described him to be in, bent back, head in his hands, alone in a row of seats that were pressed against the wall. But he looked tired. Perhaps he had fell into light recharge while waiting here.
I felt sorry for him. He shouldn't have been waiting for me, not this long.
Slowly walking up to him I saw his bent back rise and fall with each calm breath. I could see the change in his frame as well, now that I looked close. His frame had changed during these six joors. He had grown in height and his muscles were stronger and more accentuated on his frame now. His back was broader, all adorned with the lustrous red paint with an orange flame job.
I crouched quietly in front of him, putting my servo on his knee. He seemed to stir a little, but didn't awaken. I smiled at him and lightly shook his knee, using just enough of the slight amount of pressure and force to wake him up, but not alert him.
He groggily opened his optics as I he looked at me. I waited for his optics to adjust and sharpen and then realization sunk in. "Gold!" he grinned pulling me into a strong hug. "Thank Primus, you can walk!"
I hugged him back, kneeling in front of him on one knee. "Yeah, it feels good to walk again."
"Does anything hurt?" he asked, eyeing me visibly, as if scanning over my whole frame for something out of place.
"No, I'm really okay." I said with a smile. I rested my forearm on my knee while he played with my other servo. "Say, do they have any tactical board games here? I've grown bored just by lying around in that berth." I jabbed a finger in the direction of my quarters.
"You just figured out you could walk and you want to train your processor with tactics?" he almost laughed. "Fine, I'll see what I can find. Maybe Prowl can help me out."
"I'll wait for you in the quarters." I said as he helped me get up on my feet from my kneeling position, my joints creaking from not being used for a certain amount of mega-cycles. "Oh, and could you find Ratchet?" I inquired.
"I knew something hurt and you didn't want to tell me." he gave me a look that held a little scrutiny in it.
"No, nothing hurts, I just need lubrication for my joints. They've grown stiff."
"I'll see what I can do." He said with a smile as I looked at him walking away. He had certainly had some upgrades during these 6 joors. A larger frame, better defined muscles, a stronger processor unit… not to mention the slight maturity.
I walked back to my quarters, only to find a cube of low grade energon waiting for me there. Someone must have left it there from the nurses.
I took it into my servos as I sat on my berth, putting my legs on the berth and crossing them. As I was drinking my energon, surrounded by thoughts that were attacking me from the day Fireblaster did his dishonorable act, I felt weak and angry at myself once more.
Kliks later, three mechs came into my quarters. Prowl, Hot Rod and Ratchet.
"What seems to be the issue here?" Ratchet said, coming over to me and checking over my vitals and healed and patched up wounds. "I heard Hot Rod said you needed some lubrication. I will get to it by the end of the cycle."
"Thank you." I said with a smile. "I know you must have a tight schedule and I'm sorry for taking so much of your time."
He snorted. "Taking time, my aft. Femme, you're being too nice. Which is one of the reasons why I'm still attending to your wounds. Just be good and I'll be back by the end of the cycle. No pain in your limbs, helm or abdomen?"
"Nothing." I smiled once more.
He merely nodded, walking out the quarters. I did want to ask him the other reasons why he was attending to me, of why I wasn't assigned with a normal medic when I had the best medic. I was almost certain Prowl pulled some strings for me. I know I was in pretty bad shape when they took me in.
Now, only Prowl, Hot Rod and I were in my quarters as Hot Rod sat on my berth, scooting closer to me, but leaving a gap between us nonetheless.
"I must confess, I was surprised when Hot Rod came to me asking to find a board game to enhance your strategic skills." Prowl said, pulling a data pad from his subspace. "I didn't know you liked playing these games."
"Sir, I was a little bored. Besides, I think I should use my time here to its fullest." I straightened my back as I spoke to him.
"Yes, it would stand to reason. Now, this is the only portable board game that I currently have, so make sure you don't obliterate it." He looked at Hot Rod sharply, who most presumably obliterated one in the past. "Return it to me when you are finished. May the best win."
I repressed saying 'goodbye', figuring that Prowl was not my friend, he was only my superior and a really good one at that. He left soon after he spoke, closing the door behind him. He was a busy mech and I would have to thank him for being here and supplying us with a board game. I couldn't say many superiors would take their time to make a wish of ours come true. Prowl was something else.
"Okay, let's start, shall we?" I said and grinned as I turned on the data pad and it emitted a holographic version of the game, one in which we would be placing our troops and soldiers, practicing our offense and defense across Cybertron. That's when Ratchet suddenly came in again and started working on my joints, doing this thing soundlessly.
XxXxXxXxX
After Ratchet had left, cycles must have passed, because Hot Rod and I were so into the game we never took our optics from it. I completely forgot to refuel and I was laughing the whole time with him. He was supposed to be on the Decepticons' side and I was on the Autobots' and we were conquering Cybertron.
"No way! How is that even possible?" he gaped, looking at my troops which currently held a siege on his city in the game. "I… How?!"
"It's called being smart and calculating your moves." I laughed.
"No, I know what this is. This is cheating! You can't move your troops from Iacon to Altihex in only an astrosecond! In real life, they would be taking at least a quartex!"
"That's because I didn't move them from Iacon to Altihex." I smiled fiendishly. "You see, Uraya is closer to Altihex. Which is why I moved my troops from Uraya to Altihex."
"Therefore effectively holding a siege on my city." He concluded, crossing his arms across his chest, one servo brought up to his chin as he looked over the data.
"I think I won fairly, haven't I?" I said, almost laughing at his face which was concentrated on finding a fault in my actions. He couldn't find any, because I didn't cheat at all.
"But I destroyed your capital city… Iacon should have held most of your troops." He looked to my destroyed city on the board game. "I mean, it was only logical…"
I chuckled. "That's because I didn't follow logic. Sure, it would be logical for my largest city, Iacon, to hold the largest amounts of troops, right? Well, I didn't do that, because I knew you would attack the capital, but you didn't conquer much there. Instead, I moved them to Altihex," I motioned with my finger to which city I had moved half of my troops. "because it borders with Kaon. And from this city, they had easy and quick access to other parts of my territory."
"That's pretty smart."
"I know."
"You're pretty. And smart." He said, looking into my optics.
"Don't flatter me, you know I won."
"Meh, not really." He grinned, getting off the berth and coming closer to me. "We'll see who's the winner…" he came closer to my face, pressing his lips onto my nasal ridge. A tingling sensation found its way into my abdomen as his kisses slowly lowered to the tip of my nose. Excitement surged through my frame and pushed its way up, effectively reaching my spark.
"Rod…" I found myself saying. I didn't know if I was ready to kiss with him or if I even wanted to kiss with him. I thought it was all fun and games, but he always pushed his limits. He was so close now.
"Hm?" he stopped just short of touching my lips, his breath trickling hotly over my lips.
I opened my optics, not even knowing I held them closed.
The door suddenly opened as I saw Hot Rod roll his optics as he turned around, only to find a slightly shocked Prowl at the door, his right doorwing twitching slightly in shock.
"I... apologize for the interruption. Perhaps I should come at another time…" he said, shocked at the fact that he almost found us kissing on the medical berth.
"No, sir, excuse us." I said embarrassingly as Hot Rod moved out of the way and I sat up. "We finished with the game."
"And who was the victor?" he said calmly, walking over to collect his data pad.
"She was."
"I was." Hot Rod and I said in conjunction as I felt his servo on my shoulder.
"Congratulations. I will review your actions and come back at a more… appropriate time." He awkwardly said, trying to evade looking at us, leaving the room.
Astroseconds later, Hot Rod and I burst into a laughing fit. "Did you see the look on his face? Like 'oh I should come later'!" he heartily laughed.
"I know, right!" I laughed back, but what cut my laughter suddenly, was the sound of gunshots. But not gunshots like Fireblaster used to shoot me with. No, these were more like… cannon shots. "What was that?" I warily asked, looking around me and turning serious very suddenly. The ground beneath us began to shake slightly as I quickly got up off the berth and stood on my own two feet. The small metal particles fell from the ceiling.
"I don't know." Hot Rod said, clutching my hand in his and taking me out of the quarters. "Find Silvershot and get out of here. The building's unstable, I'll go get Prowl." He ordered. But what about him?
"Hot Rod-"
"No time, just go!" he ran in the opposite direction, turning at one point as I completely lost sight of him.
"Silvershot, where are you? I'm in front of my quarters, the building-"
"The building is under attack! Stay where you are, I'm coming!" He yelled through the bond as frantic bots ran beside me, some wanted to run over me. Fear had filled the atmosphere as the screams fulfilled it, like it was a piece of a puzzle, perfectly fitting in the picture.
Suddenly, a huge cannon blast hit a bot, creating a hole through his sparkcase. I stared at it in disbelief, with my mouth open agape. As the offlined bot fell to the ground, its killer presented itself in a form of a black colored mech adorned with red optics and a sharp, purple insignia on his chest.
I immediately ran and ducked into my quarters for cover, speedily turning over the berth to its side, felling it as I took cover behind it, my spark beating thunderously as I leaned my back on the turned over berth. I prayed to Primus the Decepticon hadn't seen me and that he wouldn't come in here. I just knew he was a Decepticon.
The cannon booms never stopped and each of them echoed, vibrating through my frame. This fear was rivaled with the one I had a quartex ago. In both cases, I could have deactivated and in both cases, my life depended.
Roars of anger and anguish mixed, filling the hospital's hallways and quarters. An astrosecond later, Silvershot blasted through the door, ducking behind my berth. "Thank Primus you're alright." He said, optics and sensors alert as I realized he carried a weapon. His frame was covered in someone else's energon, dirtied with gunpowder, foreign metal parts and dust.
"Where'd you get the gun?"
"Prowl." He simply replied, looking over the berth, replenishing his ammunition. "We need to be quick. On my mark, we run. Stay on my aft and keep your helm down. We only got one shot." He cocked the gun.
"One shot's all we need." I replied as he looked over the berth as I readied myself to start running from our hiding place, straight into the heart of the battle.
"Run!" he roared, running through the door as I followed suit. Immediately we got caught up in the gunfight and I kept my helm low, running as fast as I could to stay right behind him.
As we were supposed to turn right and make a beeline for the exit, I slipped on a metal plate and fell on my right hip. I groaned in pain as a sudden Decepticon found his way in front of me. I stared at him from underneath him, fear running through my lines instead of energon.
But then he got tackled by a silver mech from behind him and they flew over my helm, the silver mech immediately getting the upper hand and landing a large amount of punches into the Decepticon's face, twisting it unnaturally. His face flattened to the ground as the 'Con no longer moved.
"Come on, get up!" The silver mech, who turned out to be Silvershot, stood up, grabbing my forearm and dragged me out of the indoor battle.
But outside, things weren't much different. Explosions and alarms penetrated my audios, but the visual picture of my beloved city of Praxus being destroyed, building by building, was spark tearing. I stared at it in disbelief, my mouth possibly hanging agape, as I couldn't embrace the concept of my hometown being obliterated.
A sudden tug on my forearm immediately snapped me out of my pensive gaze as Silvershot motioned for me to transform and follow him.
I did as told as we swiftly turned and swerved, did serpentines and various stunts to avoid the enemy's fire that was trying to hit us. It was only a few kliks later, when Silvershot and I hit a safe house and hid there. He transformed quickly, closing and locking the door behind us. What was odd was that we weren't alone in there. Many of my kind, the Autobots I mean, hid in here. I recognized Prowl, Ratchet and Hot Rod, but some more mechs were in here as well. I had to catch my breath first.
At the sight of me, Hot Rod jumped from his sitting position, taking me into his arms tightly. "You're online, thank the Maker." He dug his helm into the crook of my neck. "I thought they deactivated you."
"I'm not going down without a fight." I replied, hugging him back. Not this time.
He looked up, pressing his forehead against mine. "That's my femme."
"I'm not your femme." I said, moving my head away, but couldn't hold in the chuckle that wanted to get out of my voice, knowing things stood the same between us. He lowered me down to the ground, heartily chuckling himself, as he walked with me towards Prowl. "Sir, how long are we going to be here? And what is going on?" I asked him.
"This is a Decepticon attack, ruthless and unpredictable. Megatron sent his troops to attack the hospitals and nurseries first, but luckily, we managed to escape and summon our own troops to hold them off and save as many Autobots as possible. As for how long we are going to be here, I don't know. We shall see how our defense system holds up. While we are speaking of defenses…" he said, bringing up the data pad that Hot Rod and I had been playing our game, only a couple of cycles before the attack.
While he was turning on the data pad and finding mine and Hot Rod's game, I stole a glance towards Silvershot. Ratchet seemed to be taking care of him, as I supposed he had a wound on his left arm, seeing as Ratchet was tending to him there. Had it been serious, I would have known.
"Now, this might have been just a game to you two, but your," he looked at me. "tactics and actions were illogical, yet perfectly functional."
"Mine?" I looked at him with my optics wider than usual. He didn't publicly praise, to avoid favoritism.
"Yes, allow me to explain." He said, clearly detecting my confusion and bringing up the holographic version of the battlefield. "This is your capital city, is it not?"
"Yes, sir." He motioned towards Iacon.
"And half of your troops are missing, correct?"
"Well, not missing, sir. I just redirected them to other cities, namely Altihex."
"And why is that?"
"To make a siege on his capital city, Kaon. Because Kaon held the most of his troops and his moves were only to aid it and not the surrounding cities, so I took up the opportunity of making a siege. Conquering his surrounding cities one by one and surrounding Kaon to make a sort of fortress around it, I successfully made a siege, therefore blocking his ways of defending himself. I eventually overmatched and outnumbered his troops, by using my own from Altihex, therefore resulting in a victory on my behalf."
"Brilliant." He said, looking over the schematics once more. Then, Silvershot and Ratchet joined us, watching the data pad and its information. "I should present this to Prime." Prowl said loudly, but the message was supposed to go to Ratchet.
Prime?
"Explain." Ratchet shortly said, having already finished on working on Silvershot, as Prowl started to explain exactly why my plan was supposed to go to a certain Prime's office.
"See how this represents Kaon? And this represents Iacon?" He motioned towards the capital cities, mine being Iacon and Hot Rod's being Kaon. "Ironhide." He called for a darkly colored mech that was amongst the other Autobots. He was taller than me, around Prowl's height if not a little shorter, but he had muscles the size of cannons. And then I noticed that he really had cannons, on a frighteningly leviathan scale. But Prowl seemed to be unfazed about them. "If we moved our troops to surround Kaon, by moving our troops from Iacon to Protihex and from Uraya to Altihex, we could easily establish a siege."
Prowl's words did make sense. Praxus was bordering Iacon, Protihex and Uraya, so it was only reasonable. We were up on the northern hemisphere of Cybertron, while Kaon was down on the south. If we could keep up our defenses on the northern hemisphere of Cybertron, we could easily start cornering downwards, towards Kaon, until we occupied it completely. But if only things were that simple in real life.
"True, but what about Altihex?" Ironhide spoke up, his voice gruff and deep. "It also borders with Iacon and Uraya and bad things happen there. Besides, I don't think we have any troops in Altihex. It's just space researchers there. Researchers and innocent Autobots and Neutrals that the Decepticons could deactivate or worse, enslave."
That caused Prowl to think for a while. "Yes, and that is why we will transport the troops from Uraya to Alithex. We have to take Kalis under our control as well. Our main energon refineries are there and also the massive radio transmitter."
Which makes it a perfect place for the Decepticons to target. Could they not see that? If they cut off our main supplies of energon and easiest means of communication, not only would we all die by starvation, we would be disorganized.
The safe house suddenly shook, the metal panels of it creaking.
Silence greeted the empty room. A few kliks later, seeing as there was no danger coming our way, they continued discussing the battle plans and tactics.
"We have to have the Tri-Torus Loop under our control." Ironhide continued.
"Yes, but which city do we choose as the third? Iacon and Uraya are definite." Prowl questioned.
"I say all three." Ironhide nodded. "Why not use Praxus, Protihex and Altihex all at once?"
"All? That is too much, Ironhide." Ratchet spoke up.
"So? More soldiers means more chance of victory. Besides, your camp is set in Praxus, am I correct? Take your soldiers and create groups." Ironhide spoke to Prowl.
"More soldiers also mean more chances of them become casualties, especially young and inexperienced ones. More of our troops could deactivate by friendly fire, if not by the enemy's hands." Prowl defended Ratchet's statement. "Besides, I do not know if Prime will accept your idea. Combining Protihex, Praxus and Altihex while using Iacon and Uraya as a command center, while Protihex is already known to have a ready command post? There are so many lives in Uraya and Iacon, and there aren't many troops trained for such actions."
"Well they're going to have to be trained, because right now, we have a war coming."
So that was it, I supposed. The Golden Age has ended.
This was war.
As promised, the extra long chapter is now complete and I'm ready to move forward! Don't forget to check out the new poll on my profile.
Written:
07.05.2014.