Summary- Things go very poorly when investigating the deaths of the other squad.

AN- CW for the first character death. More will be coming, I'm afraid. Just remember there will eventually be a (probably far too) sappy ending for Cyclonus.

Skywarp was sprawled on top of a mech who was whining out his distress. The monitors of the autobot ship showed a message, received over radio waves that travelled far faster than a doomed-to-be-outrun altmode. The planetside beyond burned as they flew upwards and away- down one mech.

It had all fallen apart so fast. With the peace of Viianta, it had been hard to remember just how often battles went, just how destructive, how deadly, they were as they fell apart. Even the flight over had been full of the passivity of Viianta, distracting him and those on board from the terror they should have been dreading in full instead of in distraction.

There was nothing to be done now about what they should have done or thought.

It happened like so: a team of autobots, with two unexpected recruits, followed the trail of death left by their allied division. There, they armed up and tried to investigate the source of these deaths. Those origins were found while the team stood away from their ship and, in the panic, one of their number could not return.

It happened like so because they'd insisted on investigating.

They'd walked into a maw of death, because that maw would swallow their universe regardless.

In times like these, death seemed inevitable. Choices were limited to when that death would arrive. If they rushed it on in an effort to hold off this alien force while Viianta's evacuation made it to cybertronian space? It had been declared worth doing. The end result felt inevitable either way.

It happened like so because they had not accounted to a lack of transformation that one of their members was burdened with. When the time came to flee, they left one behind. When the time came to flee, these creatures would have sooner destroyed anyone left trapped running onpede while their teammates flew or drove away than let them escape.

Really, the burden should have been explained more transparently. He should never have come with the scout force. He should have led from the ship. He should have stayed behind because he knew, while the rest of them didn't, that he would not be able to drive if fleeing was necessary. It was his fault, his stupidity, and he should have accounted for it before, before they'd run into danger, before they'd gone out to investigate a trail of death that now they themselves were trapped on.

It happened like so because, Skywarp thought, X, Y, Z, etc, what more did he have to think before the fear of being the next to die faded?

"You see anything?"

The mechs holding field-ready magnifiers shook their heads. Skywarp wasn't one of those mechs. He had a scanner in his servo instead and was flicking his attention between it and the others.

They'd landed down on the world that the broadcast had issued from. The moment they'd touched down, the clone had started panicked observations. So far as he could see, there was no melted surface leaving only a core with glass surface behind. Wasn't that what they'd said the aliens did? Kup had shaken his head at the question.

No, he'd dismissed. Their fleet ships do that. Scouts and drones don't have the capabilities. They just look for life forms to give word back that there's a population to destroy.

All that meant was that the fleets weren't here yet. Skywarp supposed that could be relieving, even if he himself didn't feel much in the way of relief (then again, he rarely did).

"I've got nothing in the west," Hot Shot said from where he lay against the dust and held the binoculars to his face dutifully.

But if not ships, then it was just these...'scouts and drones' that had killed the decepticons. How powerful were they? How many would there be?

"The southern side is clear," Red Alert said from her position.

He really was useless here. Sure, he had missiles and he'd been given a basic energy blade from the ship's armory, but what was he contributing in the moment?

Maybe he shouldn't have thought it. Maybe he'd 'jinxed' the whole thing.

"Alright, keep your optics open. Their behavior indicates they'll still be in this planetary system, if not on the planet itself." Rodimus ran a servo down his face. "The cons came here to get energon on their way to Viianta. If they were killed here, then the scouts are probably still around. That's what they've done on other occasions."

Enough occasions to be making a behavioral list, apparently. Skywarp shifted uncomfortably.

"I-I haven't gotten a signal on th-"

His words cut off when the scanner in his servo blipped.

What impeccable timing, came a voice that wasn't quite Starscream's but wasn't his either.

Maybe it had been a bad idea.

Scrap that. Skywarp could say now, with absolute authority, that it had been a fraggin stupid bad doomed desperate suicidal plan and now they were all going to die for it.

The scout was made of metal. That, at least, was good. That was something that he could fight. Light, on the other servo, was rather impossible to touch.

It was tall. Cybertronians were tall, but this thing was terrifying in its height. It could be a building. If buildings were sleek ovals that whirred as layers spun and pockets opened and searing heat poured out in beams. Beams, also, could be dodged. Dodging was a technique Skywarp was sadly intuned with doing.

And as if that wasn't bad enough?

It wasn't alone.

The scanner lay on the ground of the small planet beeping away as more and more blips appeared distantly. They were forgotten in light of the two that the team were fighting off on their own. The drones had carved down from the air and through the ground and moved quite unbecoming of their size.

All things considered, Rodimus was shockingly calm as he shouted orders and shot energy from his bow towards the pockets that the drones fired their weaponry from. Hot Shot weaved back and forth. Red Alert kept her cool even as she and her little weapon looked tiny in the face of this thing. Kup fired shot after shot from his automatic gun that seemed to almost equal him in mass. And Skywarp- well. He ran out of missiles as fast as he predicted he would and then mostly squealed and dodged and sometimes dodged close enough to the thing to ineffectually bash it with the sword.

He was rather glad that Tailgate had been left to man the bridge of the ship. If the bot was here, he could witness this embarrassment.

After a struggle on the battlefield, the first drone dropped. The second was weakened. And the scanner had been picked up by a Red Alert that grew frantically concerned over what it said as she yelled the bad news to the others still in combat. Skywarp resisted the urge to flee and leave his makeshift team behind so that he could find safety. He resisted only out of the knowledge that there was no 'safety' for him so long as his processor was the way it was.

"We have to go!" Kup roared over the sound of his weapon. The drone was shaking under the pressure offered between those still fighting it.

No one responded so long as the scout was still functioning. When it did finally drop, the message from Red Alert and order from Kup finally sunk in.

"How close?" the Prime asked, his weapon still in servo even as he leaned over his legs in exhaustion.

Red Alert lifted the scanner to display its screen for the others. "At their speed, we have five klicks before they arrive at this location. If we leave within a klick now, we should make our retreat in time."

It sank in and the panic followed.

"Get to the ship!" Rodimus ordered.

The best way to do that was to fly. Or drive, in the autobot's cases. And they folded up to do so. If they were fast, they could make it. Skywarp was guaranteed to do it with his own altmode. And he could do it faster if he warped, he knew it...

But they didn't leave fast enough. Hot Shot was pulling on his arm, Red Alert was stalled in her alt, and Kup had braked. The three of them had noticed what Skywarp's own nervous need to flee had missed: Rodimus hadn't followed.

Kup was the first to transform again. The Prime seemed unhappy with that decision on his part.

"I said to go-" he snapped.

Sure, he'd said to get back to the ship, to go back to it, but-but- why wasn't he moving?

"Kid..." Kup craned his neck back to look up at him.

The rusted mech's expression twisted. Skywarp almost recoiled at the faces he made, but managed not to. They were helpless, angry maybe? distressed? even scared?

Yes, scared. Terrified. But what of specifically?

"Com'n, hurry!" Hot Shot called from where he'd driven to. Just like the rest, the colorful autobot had transformed and was hopping pede to pede in impatience.

"I said go!" Rodimus shouted again and pointed specifically at the two autobots furthest away. "That's an order, you two! Get to the ship right now!"

They looked like protesting, but apparently the chain of command did mean something to autobots too. Red Alert and Hot Shot gave one last protest and then folded down to drive away again. Skywarp started to follow, but Kup called for him.

Specifically him.

That was unsettling.

He stopped the transformation sequence and nervously padded towards the others.

"Prime," Kup turned back to Rodimus when Skywarp got close enough. "Ah think Ah know the issue here, but Ah need ya to tell me: why aren' ya transformin' an' retreatin' with the rest of us?"

There was a beat of silence between the trio. Only between them. The noise of the drone scouts doing their destructive work far away (getting closer) was hardly stopped and it made him want to fly away now instead of waiting for whatever the old cranky autobot wanted him for.

Finally, the Prime stopped stalling and answered the question.

"I can't."

Rodimus grimaced at the stares that statement got.

"The rust infection." He lifted darkened arms helplessly and dropped them. "I haven't been able to transform since Oil Slick's mixture got dumped on me."

The name came up as some decepticon in Starscream's inherited memories, but hardly one important enough to have a resume on.

Kup let out a sound that may have been a strangled sigh. It resonated through Skywarp's audials unpleasantly and he hoped to never have to hear a sound like that again.

"That slag..." he muttered, clenching his fists. "Ah shoulda been there. Ah shoulda taken that slag instead of ya. Ya know it was supposed'ta be me there."

What did this have to do with him staying around? The drones were getting closer and they were going to die here and oh Primus he didn't want to die-

"You have to get out of here," Rodimus grabbed the shorter mech's shoulders. "Please, you've got to get back safely. Someone has to keep the others safe and I can't run faster than their weapons, so it's got to be-it's got to be-"

The servos were shaken off so that Kup's own could grab rusted arms.

"Even if Ah drove now, it'd be too late," he murmured.

Oh slag, really? What was the time- oh. Oh slag really. Still, flying was faster, maybe Skywarp still could...or he could warp...or he'd have to get back, he had to, even if they were both too slow he wasn't and and and-

Rodimus whined. It was hardly a noise of complaint. It was just strangled panic or sorrow or something unpleasant.

"You should have gone," the Prime continued that horrid whine. "I could have held them off a while, I, you, you should have gone, we didn't all have to die."

Kup yanked those arms down to slap a servo against Rodimus's back before shoving him towards a confused Skywarp.

"We don' all have to," the old mech said. "Kid, do your trick. Warp him back with ya. It's the only way either of ya are gonna make it to the ship in time."

Now he was on the spot. At least he knew why he'd been kept back here.

"What?" Rodimus looked between the two in confusion. "Wait, no! I'm not leaving you here!"

Could he warp both? Taking Tailgate the last time had added an extra 10% deficit for his tanks. Could he still try for two now?

The clone tried taking both by the arms and slipping through space to get to the ship. He felt the familiar approach of the warp, but it held back. It held back, it didn't finalize, he watched his fuel slip down a percent at a time while he only stood there partially out of place in reality.

It didn't take long for the older mech to tear out of his grip.

"Now's not the time ta be experimentin'," he frowned. The noise of destruction was louder still than it had been before the warp attempt. Skywarp's head felt like it was being repeatedly stabbed behind his right optic.

"I told ya to get out of here, so get outta here. Prime...Rodimus. Ya know they need ya more than me."

Judging by the protests, Rodimus didn't know that. Or didn't recognize it, in any case.

"So go! Go, go, go!"

If he'd learned anything from Kup during their orns stuck together, it was that the old guy was a stubborn fragger that'd always get his way. He might as well make it easy on himself and follow the order now instead of waiting for it to get enforced.

There wasn't really time to consider what impact it may have.

There was not time to think about how Rodimus would act without Kup, how there'd be no more stories, how that grumpy accent wouldn't be able to get snappy or sarcastic with him again.

There was only time to get the frag out of there before all three of them died.

Skywarp tightened his hold on a protesting Rodimus and tried to warp again. This time, the action finalized. Both mechs slipped away from the battlefield and landed together in a heap on the floor of the ship's bridge. Tailgate looked at them in alarm. The vid screens at the front showed Hot Shot and Red Alert closing the remaining distance at their top speeds. They'd make it on in time. Kup's distance from the ship was a different story.

Rodimus made a choking noise underneath him where the seeker was still sprawled over him. From the way his head was tilted, he'd seen the same thing Skywarp had.

A half a klick after they'd warped there, a written comm from Kup arrived on the screen. Rodimus had already joined Tailgate at the ship's controls and they were moving it over the surface to pick up Hot Shot and Red Alert. The Prime had remained optimistic that they would get Kup after. It was a sickly false optimism.

Skywarp didn't have time to concentrate on anything but imminent doom until after they'd already taken off. By then, the old autobot's life signal had already dropped off on their way to the battlefield they'd left him at.

It wasn't until they'd already left the planet's atmosphere and cloaked near the edge of the system that Skywarp found enough concentration to check that last comm.

It was rather enigmatic to him.

Don't regret it, kid.

It should've been me last time. I'm just glad me going to the Allspark means you're getting to stay.

He supposed he was missing some of the details that would clear the enigma of it up. Judging by the way Rodimus had locked himself in his quarters, those details weren't about to be offered just yet.