A/N: While preparing to publish chapter 12, I decided it would work better merged with chapter 11. So if any of you are getting a sense of deja vu, rest assured there's new content in the second half of the chapter.
Bumblebee rapped on First Aid's door. "Aid? You awake? I brought you some energon."
A moment passed before the door opened. First Aid peeked out. "You didn't have to do that…"
"I did if I don't want you to starve to death." Bumblebee handed him an energon cube and a box of files. "Here's the next batch of medical records."
"Thanks. Here are the ones I've finished updating." First Aid handed him a box in return and started to close the door, but Bumblebee blocked it with his foot.
"You should get some fresh air, Aid. You haven't left your quarters for a week. Smokescreen and I are going for a drive around the Sea of Rust later—you could come with us." Bee smiled encouragingly.
First Aid looked away. "I…thanks for the offer, but I have work to do. You guys have fun, though." He nudged Bee's foot out of the door and slid it shut.
Bumblebee sighed. He trudged away. No one had been able to coax Aid out of his room since the Scavengers had arrived. Some of the team had accused the newcomers of harming him, but Krok's crew seemed genuinely oblivious and Aid insisted that they hadn't touched him. If they had caused the problem, they'd done it unintentionally. But that still left the Autobots with a reclusive nurse and an overworked medic lacking an assistant. Bee wasn't sure how they were going to solve this problem.
Knockout was busy mending a Vehicon's leg when Bumblebee entered the medbay.
"Unless you're bleeding out, take a number and get in line!" Knockout snapped without looking up. Bee waited silently for him to finish. A few minutes later, Knockout shooed the repaired Vehicon out. "Next! Oh, it's you."
"It's me." Bumblebee affirmed. "I talked to First Aid, He still won't come out."
"Lovely." Knockout said that word like a curse. He snatched up his tools and headed into the adjoining room were several refugees with Cosmic Rust were being quarantined. Bumblebee followed him. "He picked the worst time to have a meltdown."
"It's not like he planned it. What happened with the Scavengers anyway?"
"Nothing happened! Fulcrum handed him his scalpel, that's it—and he just fell apart." Knockout paused, looking thoughtful for a moment before shaking the expression off. "Anyway, he needs to pull himself together. We can't afford to let psychological issues stop us when there's work to be done."
Bee noticed he said "we," as if he included himself in that statement. He didn't inquire any further, though. Knockout avidly avoided any discussion of his past. "Any ideas on how we can convince him to come out again?"
"Short of setting his room on fire, no." Knockout sighed, a mix of weariness and exasperation. "We'll just have to wait for him to recover. I suppose I'll manage until then."
Bee reluctantly agreed. He wished they could do more for their teammate, but unless First Aid chose to open up to someone, their options were limited. He turned to leave—and report the latest failure to Ultra Magnus—when the alarms began blaring.
Knockout cursed as his patient jumped in surprise. "Hold still, you idiot! You'll dislocate the energon feed!" He barked, struggling to fix the line with the flashing alarms distracting him.
"What's happening?" Bee demanded, equally shocked. In answer, the intercoms clicked on. Ultra Magnus' voice filled the room.
"Attention: all security personnel report to the bridge immediately. Repeat, all security personnel to the bridge. This is not a drill."
Bee's spark sank. The security personnel were all the bots trained for combat. Magnus wouldn't call them all together unless something serious was going down. He sped out of the medbay, transforming to vehicle mode as soon as he got to the hall. He raced to the bridge as quickly as he could, grazing his paint several times when he took corners too hard. In the bridge, Ultra Magnus stood on the dais, overlooking the assembled bots with greater somberness than usual.
As the last bots rushed in, he raised his hand for silence. "An unidentified ship is attacking the settlement in Kalis." Gasps filled the bridge. "Details are scarce, but their intent is clear. They have already received and ignored a warning. Lethal force is now authorized. Understood?"
The gathered soldiers nodded soberly.
"Good. Group Alpha, you will be under Arcee's command. Group Beta, you will follow Bumblebee. Both of you will take the groundbridge to the site of attack immediately. Group Delta, come with me to the armory. We'll join the battle in fifteen cycles. Move out!"
With practiced haste, the group split into their squadrons. In a matter of minutes, Bumblebee and Arcee's troops were pouring through the groundbridge into Kalis. They were greeted by laser blasts plowing into the ground around them. A shower of debris rained down on their heads.
"Group Beta, this way!" Bumblebee shouted. His squadron followed him as the teams dashed for cover. "Fan out and look for survivors—our first priority is getting the civilians to safety."
The warriors split up to follow his orders. Bumblebee glanced up at the attacking ship. It was about half the size of the Nemesis, but it looked far more menacing. An acid-green sigil was painted on the hull—an alien skull with blades crossed beneath it.
Pirates, Bee thought. The ship wasn't landing; it simply hovered above the town, occasionally shooting off a laser blast. It didn't seem to be targeting anything in particular. It reminded Bee of a human halfheartedly swatting at flies. Bumblebee scanned their sparse surroundings. Why were the pirates even attacking here? This settlement was still in the tents-and-shanties stage; there was nothing of value to steal. And the pirates clearly weren't interested in mere genocide, or they'd be more methodical with their strafing run.
What were they up to?
First Aid jumped when the alarms sounded, scattering datapads across the floor. He vented deeply, trying to calm his racing spark as Ultra Magnus made his announcement through the intercoms.
"On, no…" Fearing the worst, he ran for the door. He hesitated only briefly before stepping into the hall. Grim-faced mechs and femmes rushed past him on their way to the bridge. He pushed his way through the crowd to the medbay. Inside, Knockout was rushing to prepare the operating room.
"What's wrong?" First Aid asked anxiously. If someone had been hurt and died because he hadn't been around to help—
"The camp in Kalis was attacked. We need to prep the medbay in case of casualties. So glad you could find the time to join me," Knockout snapped.
First Aid swallowed his guilt and got to work readying the medbay. His unease around Knockout was all but forgotten in the urgency of the situation. He couldn't let other bots suffer because of his panic attacks.
In the midst of their preparations, the lights began to flicker. Both medics glanced up.
"What was that?" First Aid asked.
"Hopefully nothing." Knockout murmured. As soon as the words left his mouth, every light in the medbay suddenly extinguished. The dying whir of machines powering down filled the room like a chorus of sighs. The mechs were left in complete darkness.
"…Scrap." Knockout hissed.
"Do we have a back-up generator?"
"Over here." Knockout led the way to a closet in the back of the room. Opening it revealed a hidden generator, dusty from lack of use. First Aid lit the area with his headlights while Knockout fiddled with it.
"Come on, you blasted—there!" He said with triumph after several long minutes. The generator began humming. The lights flickered back to life, and the essential machinery began running again.
"How long will this last?" First Aid demanded, worried for their patients.
"A few hours, as least. I'm more concerned with what happened to the main power." Knockout shut the closet and headed out of the medbay.
"Where are you going? We're on call!" First Aid objected, running after him. The halls were as dark as the medbay had been.
Knockout didn't even turn around. "Something is wrong; generators don't just go kaput for no reason. You can stay in the medbay if you're too scared to investigate."
First Aid huffed quietly. He bit back a retort—he could hardly counter the insult when he's spent the last week holed up in his room—and followed Knockout. The best thing to do in a crisis was stick together. The halls were eerily quiet as they made their way to the bridge. Too quiet. Hadn't Magnus left anyone to staff the ship?
First Aid spotted headlights coming toward them and relaxed. "Hey!" he called. "Do you know what happened to the lights?"
No reply came for a moment, though First Aid heard an exchange of hushed whispers. "Generator malfunction," a gruff voice answered finally. "They should be coming back on any minute now."
"Oh, good." First Aid squinted at the group. He couldn't see much of any of them; in the glare of the headlights, it was hard to make out anything but vague silhouettes.
"…So, any word from Ultra Magnus yet?" the nurse asked, wanting to break the awkward silence. Knockout was strangely quiet beside him. "We have the medbay prepped for any casualties."
"No word yet." Said the gruff voice. "You two are medics, then? Reminds me of your names."
"Uh—I'm First Aid, and this is Knockout." First Aid felt an odd sinking in his tanks. Something here didn't feel right. They were the only two medics on the ship; everyone knew them. "And…you are?"
"No one important. Anyway, you need to come with us; we have orders to gather everyone in the bridge."
"Well, we have orders to be on call in the medbay." Knockout replied coldly. "We just wanted to check on the state of the generators, so if you've got that handled, we'll be going. He tugged First Aid back toward the medbay. A hand flashed out and latched onto Aid's forearm."
"It's really not safe to be out here," the voice said softly. "You'd better come with us."
"We'd really rather not." Knockout growled.
A hum filled the halls suddenly. The lights snapped on all at once, dazzling the bots. First Aid shuttered his optics for a moment to let them adjust. When he reopened them, he got his first good look at the group they had been talking to. TO his surprise, only two of them were bots; the third was a large organic with wicked-looking tusks. All of them were heavily scarred, and all of them wore the same sigil painted or tattooed onto their chest. An alien skull with blades crossed beneath it.
"See? Told ya they'd come back on." Said the largest mech, the gruff-voiced one. He raised an obscenely large plasma cannon and leveled it at the medics. His companions followed suit.
"As I was saying," the pirate sneered." To the bridge. Now."