A transport shuttle carrying the weekly energon supply lands at D-14, and Hotglide turns his attention away from the live-feed of Thundercracker and Skywarp in deep recharge.
He is as always alone during the night, and moves to the window to watch the shuttle's loading ramp open.
::Status?::
A predatory smile spreads on his lips
::All clear.:: He responds.
::Unload commencing. You have ten minutes.::
The communication is cut, and Hotglide leaves the surveillance room.
He enters the medical bay a few minutes later and walks towards the section that houses the recovery rooms.
The opening of the door into the recovery room rouses Thundercracker and Skywarp from recharge, but before any of them can react, the intruder has grabbed a hold on Thundercracker and pulled him away from the berths.
"What are you-..." Thundercracker asks, confused, but stops abruptly when the barrel of a gun is placed against his back on level with his spark.
"Come peacefully, or this little beauty is going to suffer, and we don't want that, do we?" Hotglide addresses Skywarp, and Thundercracker's spark fills with terror.
No!
It can't be true!
He struggles against the hold on him, but Hotglide's grip is merciless, and the tip of the gun begins to heat with charge.
Skywarp looks at the guard, then at Thundercracker, and Hotglide's field fills with scorn when he sees the defeat in the black and purple seeker's optics.
Pathetic.
But so far to his advantage.
"Go to the door." He commands and watches Skywarp closely while his order is followed. When the black and purple seeker walks through the door, Hotglide pulls the still struggling Thundercracker with him.
"Move out into the corridor and go to the elevator. And don't even think about trying to alert anyone. The cameras are off and I am the only one on duty. There are no escape. GO NOW!"
The level housing the medical bay is completely silent. The medics on duty have been sent elsewhere to deal with a false alert, and the corridor leading towards the elevator is empty. Skywarp pushes the button for the elevator when they reach it, and a few long anxious moments later the door opens.
"Move to the farthest wall and keep your hands against it!" Hotglide instructs the black and purple seeker, and Skywarp does as ordered.
"NO! Please don't do this!" Thundercracker implores desperately, when Hotglide pushes him towards the elevator, and he grabs hold on its door frame, refusing to walk into it.
The next moment his head is slammed brutally against the door frame and disorienting dizziness fills his processor. With a hard shove, he is forced into the elevator.
Hotglide pushes the button for the ground floor and the door closes.
"Level - 0. Entrance." The voice from the elevator's speaker announces, and the two seekers listens to the ominous pings as the elevator calmly moves to the surface.
"Have a nice day." The voice says when they reach the ground floor and the door opens.
Thundercracker stumbles out of the elevator when Hotglide mercilessly pulls him with him, and he notices the sharply illuminated runway and the transport shuttle, that is waiting on it outside the facility.
"You are both walking calmly towards the shuttle and boarding it." Hotglide instructs threateningly before he turns his full attention to Skywarp, "You may be a teleporter, but this one here will be dead before you can bring him with you."
Thundercracker stares hopelessly at Skywarp, and a sound of despair leaves him when the gun, that still is held against his back, begins to hum threateningly with charge as Skywarp takes a step towards him to offer comfort.
"No delay." Hotglide growls, "You will have enough time together when you arrive at your destination. Get going."
They leave the entrance to the facility, Skywarp first, then Thundercracker and lastly Hotglide a short distance behind the blue seeker, his gun hidden from view. When they walk up the ramp to the shuttle, Thundercracker stops and looks back at the facility.
His home through the last many years, and a safe haven, he believed.
Help is not far away, but no one knows what is going on.
An airbase full of military personnel, and the syndicate still manages to get what they want.
"MOVE!"
He looks back at the shuttle's cargo hold, and the last steps into the shuttle are the hardest he has ever taken.
"About time, Hotglide."
"This one created an awful lot of trouble." Hotglide explains, while he entrusts his living cargo to the pickup team camouflaged as energon delivery couriers, and leaves the shuttle to complete the final part of the plan inside D-14 to imitate an attack on himself. When morning comes, no one will know what has happened. The surveillance room is ruined, cameras non-functioning, and he has been the victim of an attack that left him unconscious.
Skywarp is forced to the ground with a knee in the back and is put in handcuffs, while Thundercracker is the center of attention from the rest of the pickup team.
The leader of the team steps forward and a rough hand caresses the blue seeker's cheek. Thundercracker turns his head away in revulsion at the touch, and a loud boisterous laughter fills the cargo hold.
"What a beauty." A digit beneath his chin forces him to gaze into a pair of appraising optics, and they study him with an intensity that has his spark pulse increasing.
"I can see what he sees in you." A rough thumb rubs soothingly against his trembling lower lip. "Relax. None of us want to hurt you. You are in safety here with me. Okay?"
A single tear flows down his cheek.
The words are gentle and an obvious attempt to reassure him, but it doesn't change the fact, that he knows they are a lie. Nevertheless, he accepts them and the soothing caresses that are offered.
There is nothing else he can do in the current situation.
"Come here."
A strong arm embraces his waist possessively, and he doesn't fight against the slow and stimulating caresses to the flexible plates in his midsection while he is led further into the shuttle.
"It's about time you to return to what you are made for."
He is strapped into a seat and stares with longing out at the runway while the loading ramp slowly closes.
He is once more a slave and will never get to fly again.