Early morning, after the usual drill and refueling, all Autobot officers of the Macron Gamma were called for a meeting in the tactics main hall. The huge, round table with the holographic map of the region stood in the middle of the room, surrounded by many chairs for the department-heads.
General Quasar, with his armor as shiny as ever, took a seat in front of the door, to his right servo the master tactician was seated. Next to Detalus was Counter Balance's chair, as expected for a high-ranked officer, then followed by the chief of communications, the chief of the science team and the new chief of security, since Low-Key was still recovering and to be demoted. The chief medic Thermo was sitting to Quasar's left, as were several of the lower ranked officers. All the mechas were serious and looked concerned, the latest events had lowered the morale on base severely.
"Greetings everyone." Quasar began the meeting as soon as everyone was seated. "Let us get straight to the first agenda. The information that their spies got caught should have reached the Decepticons by now. While a rescue attempt or retaliation strike both are unlikely, since Decepticons are known to abandon their own when in captivity, it is still possible that they will try an attack before we can change our defense setup and the intel they have received becomes obsolete. So chief tactician Detalus has the word, concerning our new defense strategy."
Detalus rose from his chair and zoomed in on the holographic display of the base and the surrounding area, quickly explaining the roles every department would play in case of an attack. Satisfied that there were few questions and only ones that were easily answered he sat down again and returned the word to Quasar.
That was where the meeting came to a halting point. There was one more thing to discuss but so far the general didn't seem to want to get started on that topic.
"I understand that the traitor's trial will have to wait under the given circumstances?' The chief of security finally asked the one question that most of the officers were probably thinking about. "If I may ask, what is the approximate date?"
The general exvented. What he now had to say wouldn't go over well with anymech in this room.
"Unfortunately there may not be any trial." Trying to calm the sudden confused murmur at the table, Quasar put a datapad in front of the new security mech. "While the evidence against former officer Outride is not leaving any doubt about his guilt, there has been a new development I was informed of by highcommand just four joors ago. During a skirmish near Centari Tetrax three Autobot officers were taken captive by the Decepticon forces, their location is currently unknown. Highcommand wants to attempt a prisoner exchange."
oOo
Whispers and angry, hushed comments filled the room, the atmosphere growing more tense with every sparkbeat.
"What about the soldiers' morale? The trial should have set a good example, without it, the troops will start talking that there is no justice and that we are pushovers," the chief of the artillery argued with a frown.
"He's responsible for too many deaths to just let him go," somebot else reminded.
Counter could agree to all those voices, he didn't like this new development either – especially since Outride's plots had affected his safety not once but at least three times by now. He didn't work on this case for so long, just to see the traitor getting away with his crimes.
"And here he could indirectly help rescuing a few lives for a change," Quasar threw in. "I like the idea even less than you. However, his crimes will neither be absolved nor forgotten, we'd just have to wait for the next chance to catch him. Besides the decision is no longer in our servos."
Almost all of the officers expressed their disappointment one way or another.
"When will the exchange take place?" Somebot inquired.
"We still have to contact the Decepticons to begin the negotiations. They probably want their agents back in pristine condition, if they agree to the exchange."
"The prisoners are still recovering after the session with interrogator TiltShift," the chief medic explained with a clear sign of annoyance – it was easy to figure what he thought of the said interrogator and his methods. "My team can get them into decent shape within two more orns."
"Should my team contact the Decepticons then?" The chief of communication asked.
"Yes. Here is a datapad with the details of the captured spies' identities and Autobot officers' in question to initialize the contact. The negotiations themselves will be taken over by myself and chief tactician Detalus as my advisor. We will know more after that. So be ready to be called into another meeting. Until then I expect you all to keep this from the troops and prepare for a possible strike by the Decepticons."
Finally Counter Balance spoke up: "Once they are at least patched up, I suggest transferring both of the prisoners back into the cellblock. The troops shouldn't have an opportunity to get in contact with them. In case rumors about the prisoner exchange spread, mechas might try going for revenge. And we want to avoid a repeat of the 'Low-Key incident'."
That statement seemed to enrage especially the new chief of security.
"So we intend to not only let them go, we also waste our supplies on them and set up more guards to protect them? That is..."
"Reasonable," the master tactician cut in all of a sudden. "I suggest also picking the guards from those who didn't have much connection to the former officer Outride in the past. If we start to negotiate the exchange and meanwhile something happens to our prisoners, we lose all good cards in our servos."
"Hearing that from you…" Thermo shook his helm at the old tactician. "You more than anyone else should know just how dangerous that traitor is. And you should be the one demanding him being put on trial the most."
The Old Turbo-fox narrowed his green optics.
"I think you misunderstood my point. All I'm saying is that our personal grudges shouldn't affect our judgment. We all want to see the traitor being brought to justice but we can't always get what we want. Our fellow Autobot's lives are at risk and we should do what it takes to secure their return."
"And hope to settle the score another time." Counter agreed.
"If this is all…" Quasar looked around and got affirmative nods. "…then this meeting is closed."
The officers rushed out to prepare the base defenses and the negotiations, none of them looking forward to their parts in it.
When almost all of the mecha had left the tactics main hall, Counter Balance turned to Detalus and Quasar: "There is one more thing that I'd like to share with you," he stated calmly. "It's about the interrogation."
They waited until the room was empty. What Counter had to say might be considered a delicate topic after all.
"I guess you heard rumors about TiltShift's methods?" Quasar inquired, leaning back in his chair.
"To be honest the medics have protested having to patch up the mecha TiltShift interrogated several times already but since the monitoring in the interrogation room always goes conveniently offline when TiltShift is on base, we couldn't really do much about it." Detalus explained. "We sent a complaint and a request to investigate him to Iacon before, but the files and forms have disappeared somewhere along the lines and we were not so subtly discouraged to send another one. TiltShift has friends in some high positions."
"General Pulsar from the Macron Delta base recommended this mech to us and at the state of the war 'one is not to be supposed to get picky about the soldiers'," Quasar quoted with a not-so-pleased expression on his faceplate. Counter knew all too well that the general was talking about his own creator which only complicated the dilemma.
"I've heard of him, yes, and of the constant problem with the missing footage from his interrogations. That is why I installed an, let's say, additional recording device in the interrogation room two orns ago – just in case of yet another technical difficulty messing with the normal cameras. The results are quite interesting."
"How did you even do that?" Detalus asked puzzled "When we tried something along the lines we only had one more broken camera as the result."
Quasar exvented: "Do I have to ask why you didn't inform me, Counter?"
The spec ops Mech only shrugged. "Same reason as always, Sir – the less mechas know about something, the easier it is too keep it a secret. I guess it's just the charm of my line of work. In any case, I also read TiltShift's report and I must inform you that not everything from the interrogation made it into the files. And we're not only talking the methods right now."
With that Counter offered a small data-stick to the general and his advisor.
Quasar and Detalus shared an uncomfortable glance before the general accepted the datastick and copied the content to a free pad for watching.
Just a few breems of seeing Outride's mangled frame being wrecked in agony and primal fear was enough for Quasar to hastily end the replay. Detalus seemed only slightly less shaken.
"It goes on for eight joors," Counter Balance informed them. "And the last few questions aren't mentioned in the final report at all. Questions like: 'When and where the Con's air forces will strike next?' or 'Where is Megatron right now?' – things that Outride couldn't possibly know about."
Obviously both officers hadn't expected that.
Detalus looked over the notes Counter had supplied: "Use of liquid nitrogen to break the prisoner's abdominal plating, a drill to dismantle both hip-joints, one servo removed with a bolt-cutter and TiltShift applied corrosive zinc chloride to all open wounds – during my entire time in the army I've never before encountered such a blatant violation of the Autobot-code. The Prime will be furious once he hears about this. I doubt even general Pulsar has enough influence to get TiltShift out of that one."
Counter nodded to that. "I will make sure this recording reaches the prosecutor's office even before I go back to Iacon. There is one more part I wanted to show to you though." He clicked on the video player and skipped to the end of first joor of the interrogation. "Here it is, please listen to the audio."
The three of them leaned toward the datapad since the sound wasn't at full volume. Counter didn't want to risk somebot overhearing the energon-curdling screams recorded on the footage.
: I'll tell, : Outride yelped from the other side of the screen, : just not to you. I want to talk to the master tactician. I will collaborate. :
"As you can see, the prisoner was willing to share some information and yet the interrogation wasn't interrupted and the master tactician wasn't informed of this. What's more, that fact was fully ignored in TiltShift's report." He paused the video and took a deep vent, waiting. "I thought you might want to know about it, Detalus."
"I appreciate that," the old mech said flatly, "but I don't think it matters any more now. If you excuse me, I got some negotiations to prepare for."
Detalus didn't show any outward emotion and who knew what he was truly thinking. General Quasar looked a bit worried but he nodded his helm dismissing the chief of tactics.
"I think that's all, thank you for your report Counter."
The spec ops mech saluted and also left the room. He was glad that this part was done with – no matter how successful TiltShift might be at his job, bots like him shall never be allowed among the decent Autobots.
oOo
Outride woke to the pleasant dull pain of fresh repair, though he could really have done without the murderous helmache that made him almost want to stab his one remaining optic with a pointy object. Almost, because even if the light in the... Where was he? Ah, yes, he was back in the prison medbay. So even if the light was burning like a supernova, it was still better than that helpless blindness he had been kept in while that sadistic fragger had ripped his frame apart.
"Good morning sunshine," someone greeted him sarcastically. "So, how are you?"
He knew that voice and the mecha to whom it belonged to. He would have recognized it even in the bottom of the Pit! Counter Balance – this rusty Autoscum had ruined his life, his spy career, his chances for the Decepticons' appreciation and finally his face-plate! If Outride wasn't tied down, he'd offline the mech right here, right away.
"You..."
Chief medic Thermo interrupted them before Outride could complete the sentence. He cast Counter a stern glare: "No undoing my hard work!"
The other mech just snorted: "What do you take me for?"
The spy watched the old medic walking out which left the two of them the only bots in the room.
What was Counter doing here anyway? Having a guard shift? Impossible for a mech of his rank. And if he came here seeking some revenge, he had missed his chance, TiltShift already had done that for him.
"It is truly sparkwarming to know you care about my wellbeing," he threw one of his old snide remarks back at the spec ops mech, since coming up with something more creative was hard with that pesky helmache. "So? Are you gonna gloat, or what?"
"Hardly." The other mech glanced nonchalantly at a datapad he had apparently been reading while he had been…waiting? …for Outride to wake up? "I'm here to talk business."
"Oh? Since when do you Autobots do businesses with us Decepticons?"
"You'd be surprised. Though usually it is your lord Megatron offering us our lives, if we hand over the matrix of leadership, the planet, the colonies and ourselves in stasis cuffs."
"...funny," the Con mumbled but didn't feel too amused. He tried to change his position on the table but with his legs and arms cuffed it wasn't really possible. He was glad that at least his servo had been attached back to his frame. One orn TiltShift would pay for what he had done. "But jokes aside. What do you want from me?"
"Fine. Let us cut right to the main topic: Remember the orn when I came to this base to pick up the artifact? I assume it is not too far fetched to say that you were the one responsible for the squad of Decepticons waiting for me on my way home?"
Outride stayed quiet for a moment, his damaged faceplate twitching as an unpleasant thought crossed his cpu.
"They sent you for another interrogation?" He finally hissed. "You think you could do better than him?"
The other mech snorted again: "I won't even try. You can answer my questions or not. It is up to you."
Then Counter fell silent leaving Outride time to let that sink in. It confused the spy. It made no sense at all. Shouldn't Counter Balance hate him as much as Outride hated him back? Why was the guy so calm, what kind of logic was that?
"What if..." he lowered his voice, not being sure whether he should continue. "What if I'll answer? Will you let me go?"
The spec ops mech cast him a look. His voice was dripping with sarcasm when he answered: "Oh sure! And I'll give you the matrix of leadership, the rule over Cybertron and its colonies and while I'm at it, I'll talk everyone into wearing stasis cuffs and pay Megatron a visit!"
"Go frag yourself."
Angry and bitter, the spy turned his helm away to avoid Counter's gaze. As stupid as that was, he desperately needed something to hold on to, some light at the end of the tunnel in his hopeless situation. But the sad truth was, none of the Autobots, and especially not Counter Balance, were willing to give him anything in return while they could take the information by force. This whole conversation seemed to be but a mockery to him. What had he done to deserve such fate?
oOo
This had not gone as well as planned. Counter had let his anger slip and mocked the captured spy. It didn't look like Outride, enraged as he was now, would willingly talk. He glanced at the datapad – no in this situation leaving the hostile agent time to think was his only option. What would Meister say now? He frantically scrolled further down to the next interrogation scene. Oh, right!
"Fine. If you think you have something to tell, worth my time, get Thermo or one of the prison guards to contact me. Think about your trial in the meantime."
And with that he stood and walked away. He actually made it out of the door without the spy calling him back. Was this method not working either? The mention of the trial should have made Outride nervous, as there was no way he could already know about the negotiations for the prisoner exchange. But Counter couldn't loiter in front of the prison medbay, better he returned to his office to get some more work done for now and hope that Outride felt the urge to make some sort of deal before the negotiations resolved.
He didn't even manage to leave the prison-block when somebot called him. It was Blackjack, the mech had apparently been loitering in front of the medbay for some reason.
"What are you doing here?" Counter raised an optical ridge. "Spying on your own commanding officer?"
"Not really," the black mech shrugged. "And I could ask you the same. What are you doing here, boss? Making deals with the enemy behind everybot's back?"
"You really think I would do this, if not under order from Alpha Trion? I'd prefer to investigate the old fashioned way but..."
"Okay, okay..." the other interrupted with a defensive gesture. "I don't need to know about the details, I just wanted to warn you: collaborating with him won't work. You're wasting your time here."
"How do you know he won't be willing to sell the information? The only problem is that 'selling' things is what he is good at, while I am..."
"That's not what I mean. The mech has been tortured, do you think he makes rational decisions right now? He will agree to nothing because he hates us all."
At this point Counter knew, Blackjack was talking from experience. He had heard the story of the mech's encounter with the Decepticon interrogator-wannabee called Vortex. He was aware that the hatred for this Con had turned the former engineer Upgrade into agent Blackjack. But Outride was a different case all along.
"He's nothing like you, soldier," Counter assured him calmly. "Let's get back upstairs. We'll wait and see."
oOo
It hadn't taken all that long until Outride had overstayed his welcome in the medbay. Now he was sitting on the floor of a cell trying his best not to rub his itchy, half melted face. Ever since he had seen what was left of his once perfectly good-looking features he couldn't stop thinking about it. Not to mentioned that the edges of the wound still hurt, but then again that was like the rest of his newly patched-up frame.
The monotony of the prison was interrupted when the guards entered. Outride tensed up, his fuelpump racing. Were they here to drag him back into the interrogation room for another 'session' with TiltShift because he hadn't answered Counter's questions?
But the two guards, Outride had never seen them before, simply shoved another cuffed-up prisoner into the cell opposite the corridor.
Tarpit, frame covered in fresh welds similar to his own, let out a nasty curse right as the cell door locked behind him.
Outride instantly understood why TiltShift hadn't bothered to ask about his contact in town. They had Tarpit all along, which meant that there was nobot who knew about their capture or would try to help them from the outside. How did the Autoscums even discover the other Con?
"What did you tell them?" Tarpit asked out of the blue.
Outride didn't want to talk about it, in fact he didn't want to talk at all – the sound of his glitching, down-regulated vocalizer creeped him out, also he didn't have to explain himself to Tarpit.
"That interrogator wouldn't have ruined your audials or your vocalizer, so don't play as if you haven't heard me!" Tarpit, now somewhat enraged, demanded. Outride knew the mech hated being ignored.
"Calm down before the guards hear us," the bright-green mech hissed, now also annoyed. "I didn't sell you out, if that's what you mean. So don't act like you're better than me 'cause you have no idea..." His voice suddenly went all static as the memory of TiltShift's treatment flashed back through his processor.
"Oh? No idea? You think they brought me here for a buffing and full detailing?" Tarpit grit out between his remaining dentas – the Autobot interrogator must have pulled out a few, and punched in some more. "And no selling me out? Are you trying to tell me that those Autobots all of a sudden found out about me on their own? If you think I believe you, you must be incredibly stupid, and should you actually be telling the truth then you must be even dumber because then you fragging screwed this up unintentionally!"
"Shut up!" Tarpit's words burned his ego like the hydrafloric acid. "It's not my fault! It was that stupid glitch – that so called friend of yours! Who else?"
He had made some mistakes, true, helping NorthStar had been the first of them and then offlining the Bots from the convoy just to talk with the femme. If he had known it would end like that... But it didn't explain how Tarpit got caught. The whole failure was definitely not Outride's fault.
"Stop whining! You are the one who got cocky and messed up an easy job." Tarpit hissed back. "All that work just for you to ruin a perfect deep-cover operation – and then you can't even clean up your own messes behind you!"
"I told you to shut up!" Outride yelled and rose to his pedes. "You think I didn't try to offline that mech? I did! Not once but twice! And look how well that ended!" Storming as close to the electric bars as possible, the former officer presented his acid-burned faceplate. "And meanwhile you just sat on your aft and waited for the Autoscums to get you. Did you even fight back? Or did you follow their orders? How many of them did you offline? Zero?"
"So then you managed to kill off half the base personnel with all that acid I provided? With all the time, opportunity and the element of surprise at servo that you had, opposite to me who was apprehended in an ambush? How many key personnel did you offline? 100? 10? At least the base commander? Your superior? Because you looser didn't even manage to get your initial target!"
Outride felt a mix of shame and anger boiling up inside his fuel lines. He didn't offline anyone important. Not even Low-Key who somehow had survived his attempt to poison her. How was it possible that all of them were so lucky?
"I...," he stuttered not knowing what to answer.
"Useless!" Tarpit hissed again and this time Outride had enough.
He grabbed the energy-bars with his cuffed servos, the blue sparks shot from them as the electric current ran through his frame.
"I'm gonnaaa..."
He didn't finish since the rest of the line got missing in between the incoherent sounds of getting electrocuted.
A few moments later Outride let the bars go and fell to the floor, still trembling lightly.
Over in his cell, laying on that uncomfy bunk berth, Tarpit broke out in gloating laughter exposing his purple glossa.
"Be quiet!" The angry voice of a prison guard ordered.
The laughter died down and the two prisoners remained in silence.
After a few breems Outride decided to talk to the other Decapticon again.
"Listen Tarpit, there is only one thing that we can do right now..."
"Oh? Then enlighten me."
"We did what we were ordered to do and we have failed. We're at the Autobots' mercy, no one is gonna help us. And we both told them too much already. They're gonna charge us for espionage and will most likely sentence us for execution. Unless..."
"Unless? Get on with it."
"Unless we help them to lead our troops into some trap by reporting false informations. We have to collaborate with them," Outride finished almost certain that Tarpit would hate that suggestion. "And before you decline, just think, what our loyalty would be good for anyway."
oOo
Tarpit knew that Acrid had no clue that one of his petrorats had escaped to warn the Decepticons of their capture. Actually Acrid didn't even know about the messenger-rats. Still, did the mech really believe the Autobots would even attempt such a processor-broken scheme? Or that they would consider being more gracious during a fragging trial? True, the Autobots saw Tarpit as just another low-ranked Con to be dealt with, but a deep cover spy like 'Outride'? He was less than trash in their optics.
With some effort he rolled over on the bunk so that his back was turned to the corridor between their cells and to Acrid respectively.
"Count me out," he muttered and decided to catch up on some recharge, so his autorepair could work undisturbed. Who knew, if or when they were dragged back into that interrogation room.