46- New Recruit.

Inside the Autobot base, Sky, Aris, BB-8 and the Skywalker twins were checking the conspiracy website until they found an image of Bumblebee.

"Removing Bumblebee, and replacing him with…" Aris said as she erased Bee's image and put a battle droid wearing a tuxedo dancing with cantina music, which made everyone laugh.

"I never get bored with this kind of images." Leia said with cheerful tears.

"The tap-dancing droid strikes again." Sky said as he and Aris high-fived each other.

"(I admit it, that's very funny.)"

"Bumblebee sightings on the Holonet are not laughing matter." Ratchet scold them as he continued his work.

"We are not laughing at that, Ratchet, but at the surprise the people are going to find on its place." Luke clarified.

Bulkhead was still in recovery process, but now he seemed to advance better: he was now doing some leg exercises, and Han was helping him as a coach.

"Seven, eight, nine…" Han counted.

"Why can't I just drive from now on?" Bulkhead asked.

"Because your legs will atrophy if you choose not to use them." Ratchet explained.

"Ugh." Bulkhead groaned.

"One, two, three…" Han started again.

Wait, what's that?" Luke said pointing at the screen.

The next image showed some kind of mysterious meteor, so Aris zoomed in on the image.

"Is that a cybertronian escape pod?" Sky suggested.

"What? Where?" Ratchet demanded.

"According with the report, this image was taken by a research probe near to Dagobah's atmosphere. So, the pod would probably land there." Aris deduced as she passed the image to the main screen.

"Autobot or Decepticon?" Arcee asked.

"Impossible to tell, giving the image resolution." Ratchet explained.

"In any event, this merits investigation." Optimus declared.

"Could be a trap, and we're down one Bot. Should we reach out to Wheeljack?" Cliffjumper suggested.

"I can hear you!" Bulkhead called.

"I don't care if Bulkhead isn't combat ready. After that revenge stunt he pulled with Han, Wheeljack can stay rouge." Ratchet objected.

"An Autobot may be in distress. Ratchet, bring your medical kit." Optimus decided.

Dagobah

The Autobots traveled in vehicle form through the ground bridge, which brought them to the crash-site, in a clear of the swamp. Once there, they changed to robot form, pulled out their weapons and approached the pod, which was leaking a trail of energon. Arcee wiped the mud off and showed the pod's origin.

"It is of Decepticon origin." Optimus recognized.

"And the Con inside blew his way out." Cliff deduced.

Then, a storm of lasers surprised them: there was a huge battalion of Cons and some Insecticons firing at them.

"All those Cons came out of one pod?" Arcee asked in disbelief.

"The natives refer to the phenomenon as a clown speeder!" Ratchet explained as he started to return fire.

One Insecticon charged and landed, changing back to normal form, before trying to strike against Optimus. But the Autobot leader blocked its attacks with his sword and disposed of it with his cannon and of another bug which came next. A Decepticon leaper managed to smash Ratchet against a boulder, but before he could finish him, Arcee cut his blades with her wrist blades. The leaper grabbed her, but she managed to break free with her feet before she, Cliff and Bee eliminated him with their guns. But there was still too many Decepticons, and the tanks and snipers already took positions to fire their long-range weapons, forcing them to cover behind a bunch of boulders. Suddenly, more blue lasers came from behind them, and they spotted a new cybertronian: one white with blue details, firing as he ran at them.

"Incoming!" Arcee warned as she, Bee and Cliff aimed at the new one.

"Down in front!" The new guy said before passing above them.

The newbie jumped at the closest Con and started firing at the rest of the enemies: so it could only be an Autobot.

"Friendly?" Cliff asked surprised.

The new Autobot continued eliminating even the furthest Cons until an Insecticon tried to tackled him, but he jumped backwards before firing at it, but one of the shots hit the energon, making it to burn in blue flames, starting a chain reaction.

"Fall back!" Optimus ordered.

Everyone, including the new Autobot, ran and jumped behind some boulders to cover themselves from the incoming explosion. As result, the entire area was still burning on blue flames, but it seemed that the explosion took care of all the Decepticons, which the new Autobot noticed.

"WOOO! Too hot for you, Cons?!"

"Friend of yours?" Ratchet asked.

"(Of course not.)"

"Don't look at me." Cliff added.

"Never seen him before." Arcee added.

The new guy reunited with them. "Torching that energon leak. Pretty good plan, right?"

"Except that it wasn't your plan, it was a random shot that almost fried us to a crisp." Arcee corrected.

"Worked out, didn't it?"

"Thank you, fellow Autobot. Your…valor is to be commended." Optimus congratulated.

The new Autobot looked speechless when he saw Prime. "I…don't believe it: you're Optimus Prime! He's Optimus Prime!" He said to the others.

The others agreed confused.

"We know." Arcee said.

"Yes, yes, yes." Ratchet added.

"It's not hard to see it." Cliff added.

"(We already know him.)"

"What is your name, soldier?" Optimus asked.

"Smokescreen, sir!" The new Autobot introduced as he saluted him.

"Welcome to the galaxy, Smokescreen." Optimus said offering him his hand.

And Smokescreen gave him his own. "It's an honor to be here. Especially with you."

"Now what?" Ratchet started. "It's not like we can just bring him back to base."

"Wouldn't be the first time an ally turned out to be plant." Cliff pointed out.

"Yeah. Remember our incident with Makeshift?" Arcee reminded.

Optimus took a good look at Smokescreen, and noticed something unusual on the Autobot emblem on his shoulder. "I see that you received your training from Cybertron's Elite Guard."

"True enough. Though it wasn't much more than a boot camp by the time I joined. Never even got a proper graduation ceremony." Smokescreen told.

"There was a war going on." Cliff said.

"Hey, all I ever wanted was to be a soldier, serve the Autobot cause. But what I got was security detail at Iacon."

"The Hall of Records, of all places? Optimus, do you not find this highly suspicious?" Ratchet asked.

"Smokescreen, what was your assignment inside the hall?" Optimus asked.

"Guarding Alpha Trion during what turned out to be the final days of the war."

"You served under the Master Archivist?"

"Nah, I wasn't thrilled at first: watching the back of an old Bot instead of kicking Con tailpipe." Smokescreen said smashing his fists, but he realized at seeing the group that he spoke out of the line. "Sorry. But the big A turned out to be a great teacher, and a true friend. I mean, he was the one who petitioned Halogen and the High Council to make you a Prime."

By hearing all of that, Optimus came up with his decision. "BB-8, activate the ground bridge."

"That's it? That's all you need to hear before inviting him to the party?" Arcee asked in disbelief.

"If my formed mentor shared this information, it is because he considered Smokescreen a trusted ally."

"Well, guess how's going to be excited back there." Cliff said.

Once at base, of course, the kids were excited to meet a new Autobot, especially Han.

"We haven't had somebody new here since Wheeljack. What's your story, Smoke? Where'd you come from? How'd you get here? How many blasters you're packing?"

Smokescreen's first impression was also strange. "So, these are the lifeforms we're supposed to protect? Are they all like this?"

"Fortunately not. But I too share Han's fascination with how you came to arrive on Dagobah." Cliff admitted.

"In a Decepticon escape pod." Arcee added.

"Still got trust issues, huh? Tough crowd." Smokescreen said before he started to relate his story. "The main thrust of combat operations was at least 20 klicks from the Hall of Records. So things have been pretty quiet, but the situation went downhill fast: the Cons launched a massive surge that wiped out the last line of defenses surrounding Iacon. I was the only thing left to hold them back, and let me tell you, I was pumped. I mean, this was my chance to see real action for the first time, to prove myself. Until everything went black. The Cons took me prisoner and dumped me onto a transport ship, but I managed to give a guard to slip and hopped in an escape pod. Apparently, it was a long-distance pod, because it knocked me into stasis. Next thing I knew, I'm hitting solid ground. Hard."

"The Decepticon warship must have picked up the pod's beacon and guided it to the closest planet for landing." Ratchet deduced.

"Which would explain Smokescreen's welcoming committee." Cliff added.

Arcee chuckled. "Bet those Cons were disappointed not to find one of their own inside."

"Smokescreen, do you know of Alpha Trion's fate after the fall of Iacon?" Optimus asked.

"I wish I did, but that was the last I ever saw of him." Smokescreen replied, while Optimus looked worried and troubled. "That's it, my life story. Not exactly the glory I envisioned for myself…until now. Being here with Optimus Prime? I knew I was destined for great things. I mean, now that you have help, how hard could it be to end this war?"

Then a scrapping noise coming from the corridor caught everyone's attention: it was Bulkhead limping inside, and he didn't look happy.

"Take a good look, newbie." Bulkhead said entering the room. "This is how hard."

"Smokescreen, I would suggest that you take some time to become acclimated to your new surroundings. A tour of the base would be an excellent start." Optimus suggested.

"Sure thing!" Han immediately said, but he changed his mind at seeing Bulkhead's face. "I mean…Luke, Sky and BB-8 here offers a very informative tour."

Smokescreen looked at them, who simply smiled at him a little nervous.

Barkhesh

At the same time, inside the Harbinger, Starscream and his Seekers were checking the same information source that the children saw recently.

"This is what the natives call the Holonet? It's just a trillion gigabytes of data, none of it useful." Thundercracker groaned as he continued passing images, until he stopped on the one of the dancing droid. He was speechless, but Skywarp looked at it interested.

"Though some, oddly engrossing." Skywarp said before he and Starscream laughed.

"Oh boy." Slipstream mumbled as the images continued passing. "Wait, that one!" She suddenly shouted at one particular image. "Is that what I'm thinking it is?"

Starscream chuckled as he saw it. "You always had the sharpest eyes, sister. Ignorant lifeforms, have no idea what they've uncovered: red energon."

"Really? There has been a while since we saw that kind." Skywarp pointed out.

"If we can posses its power, not only will we be stronger thanks to the Apex Armor, but also faster." Thundercracker revealed.

"Significantly faster." Starscream added.

At the same time, at the Autobot base, Luke, Sky and BB-8 were showing Smokescreen the relic storage room.

"And that's the phase shifter, then the spark extractor and there is the immobilizer…" Sky summarized.

"This is where we store the cybertronian relics we found buried on the galaxy's planets. And talk about a small universe, because most of them came from…" Luke continued.

"The Iacon Hall of Records." Smokescreen finished as he saw the room where the phase shifter was storage. "I remember these." Smokescreen stopped again at the next one, which where Airachnid was. "Whoa. What kind of relic is she?"

"The kind you don't want to mess with." Luke answered.

"She is a former Decepticon, one that cause so much harm to my friend Arcee." Sky told. "But now, she is trapped inside that Insecticon pod, forever."

"Oh, I get it." Smokescreen said.

Back to the main hall…

"If you wanted to replace me you should have called Wheeljack. I could have lived with that." Bulkhead said mad with his arms crossed.

"No one is replacing you, Bulkhead. For one thing, Smokescreen's too green." Cliffjumper tranquilized.

"Well, Bulk is green as they get." Han said.

"What Cliffjumper means is Smokescreen still has a great deal to learn." Ratchet clarified.

"And once you got him trained then what? He's in, I'm a doorstop!"

"Bulkhead, your place with us is not in jeopardy. But there is no dispute that we have long required additional firepower. It is essential that our team learns to work with our new recruit, not against him." Optimus explained.

"Better hope the hotshot's blasters are as big as his mouth. How hard can it be?"

"Hey everyone, check this out!" Aris called.

"Bah, don't tell me it's another Bumblebee sight." Ratchet groaned, until he saw the image on the main screen. "Oh my…"

"Red energon." Optimus recognized.

"Here, on this galaxy?" Ratchet asked in disbelief.

"What's red energon?" Leia asked.

"An extremely rare and volatile form of energon. Refined into fuel provides the power of hyper-speed." Ratchet explained.

"Not the same way as your ships travel to one planet to another, mostly make us run faster so our enemies can't see us coming." Cliff clarified to avoid confusion.

"We must have agent Kallus clear the dig site of all native presence, in the event we are not the only ones who have discovered it's location." Optimus instructed.

"Now you're talking. Let's scramble up some Cons' circuits." Smokescreen said cheerful crushing his fists together as he and the others returned.

"Given your limited field experience, I believe further training is required before you are battle ready."

"Optimus, with all due respect…"

"Furthermore, we Autobots live on this galaxy as robots in disguise: you will need to obtain a native-based vehicle mode."

"In order to maintain a low profile, if that's possible for you." Arcee finished.

"If you're talking wheels, bring them on." Smokescreen accepted.

Lothal

A ground bridge appeared in middle of a rocky area, and the four Seekers came out in a jump.

"The red energon is ours, insects! For you are powerless in the face of the mighty Seek…" Skywarp was shouting in presentation, but stopped at seeing that there was no one there. "What? Where is it?!"

"It seems we arrived too late." Thundercracker saw.

"Or maybe not." Slipstream started, checking the dig site. "These marks are recent, so it means the energon has been carried away, but it cannot be far."

"Let's split up. We'll find the energon faster if we search through different paths." Starscream ordered.

Meanwhile, Smokescreen, Han and Luke were on a hillside near to Theed, looking all the vehicles that drove through the roads.

"Nope." Smokescreen said as a speeder passed.

"How about that one?" Luke said pointing to an old one.

"Nah, it's more Ratchet's speed, don't you think?"

"You have no idea how fast Ratchet can go when he proposes it." Han reassured.

"Transport heavy speeder?" Luke suggested seeing one.

"Yeah, if I were a Constructicon. Seriously? This is the best your planet has to offer?"

"No, but Naboo is not the planet with most variant kinds of vehicles of the galaxy."

"I'd feel for ya."

"Wait, I know of the perfect place for finding Smokescreen's vehicle mode. By his appearance it has to be something luxury, stylist and fast, almost like Bumblebee's. I suggest we go back to base and travel by ground bridge to Canto Bight." Han suggested.

"To the biggest vacation resorts zone and greatest place for holidays of the entire galaxy? Right there?!" Luke asked with curiosity and excitement. "I haven't been there since me and Leia went on holidays with our parents very long ago."

Moments before they returned to base immediately and asked to use the ground bridge, which Ratchet agreed after hearing the reason why, the other three children and the rest of the Autobots continued the search for red energon. The ground bridge transported them in middle of a dock with lots of containers not far from the dig site. The Autobots arrived in vehicle form and allowed the kids to get out before return to robot form.

"Up there." Leia spotted the red energon inside a crate hanging high in the dock crane.

"Kallus couldn't have a crane operator lower the thing?" Arcee asked sarcastically.

"The locals must have been preparing to transfer the meteor to a cargo ship when they received his evacuation order." Optimus deduced.

"Run along home, Autobots and Jedi younglings. That red energon has my name all over it." Starscream proclaimed as he appeared in front of them and placed the Apex Armor on his chest and it covered all his body.

"Oh no, not this again." Sky said worried.

"And I am more than willing to fight for it."

"What's that? Looks like some kind of armor." Aris observed.

"Is the Apex Armor. I had the feeling that we would encounter Starscream wearing it again." Sky said.

"That's bad?" Leia asked.

"Really bad. Not even lightsabers can make it even a scratch."

"Like our fellow Zillo Beast's scales." Aris remembered.

"Secure the red energon and have Ratchet bridge it back to base alongside the children." Optimus instructed.

Cliffjumper, Arcee, Bumblebee and their human companions ran to the crane while Optimus activated his battle mask and stood to face Starscream. The Decepticon charged at Optimus while he shot at him without effects and waited for him to strike. And when he did, Optimus counterattacked two times, but Starscream grabbed him by the arm and threw him at the containers.

"Don't tell me you've already forgotten our last encounter, Prime?" Starscream mocked.

Bee saw Optimus's situation as he was climbing up the crane.

"Keep moving, Bee." Cliff encouraged.

But Starscream already spotted and moved at them.

"Optimus, is something wrong?" Ratchet asked from base.

"Starscream has come for the red energon. And I fear he will not be deterred in his quest."

The other kids and Smokescreen already returned to base.

"Starscream? I heard stories about that stiletto heel creep back on Cybertron. Send me in, doc." Smokescreen offered himself.

"When Optimus requires backup, he will ask for it." Ratchet answered.

"Ah, come on! I got my V mode and everything. I'm supped up and ready to roll."

"Dat dat dat! What part of further training did you not understand?"

"By the way, where are the others?" Han asked.

"I'm afraid to say they are currently at the same coordinates as Optimus and the others."

"What? My sister and friends are near Starscream?! We need to help them!" Luke said alarmed.

"They went because no one expect Starscream to be there too. Trust me, the team will not let anything happen to them. You know it already."

But Smokescreen had no intention to remain still, something that Luke sensed. Back with the team, Starscream was now climbing after them, following them.

"Guys, the crazy mad droid is following us closely!" Leia spotted alarmed.

"The higher you climb, the harder you fall." Starscream taunted.

But the team managed to reach the top.

"You guys take the energon, I will slow down Scream." Cliff told them before firing at the Decepticon.

Starscream laughed. "Autobots, such slow learners."

Back at base…

"Optimus, what is your status?" Ratchet asked.

"Ratchet, they need me. I can do this." Bulkhead insisted.

"Arcee? Bumblebee? Cliffjumper? Leia? Aris? Come in, Sky!"

"Did you hear what I said?!"

"I heard and I'm ignoring you. This may be your opportunity after all, Smokes…" Ratchet was about to say, but he was no present in the room. "Where's Smokescreen?"

"No idea. But Luke went with him." Han revealed.

Smokescreen was opening the door of the place where the phase shifter was storage, and Luke was alongside him.

"You're sure of that?" Luke asked.

"Yeah, that's the one." Smokescreen nodded.

"You there!" Ratchet called as he found them. "What in the name of the Allspark do you think you're doing?"

"Smokescreen has thought on a way which probably could help us to beat Starscream's new toy, and he told me." Luke answered, making Ratchet started to get curious.

Meanwhile, Starscream managed to reach the top with the Autobots. Cliff and Bee tried to hold him back, but their blasters didn't work. Instead, the Decepticon pushed Bee aside, leaving him stuck in a hole, and grabbed Cliffjumper by his arms, with intention to tear him apart.

"What about if we restart our little chat long time ago, Cliffjumper?"

"Sorry Scream, but I don't think you would like to have a conversation with a two-part Bot." Cliff answered as he felt Starscream trying to rip him apart.

Fortunately, Starscream slipped one of his feet, making him lost grip of his captive and allowing Cliffjumper to break free and going to assist Bee, no one saw that was Aris's doing. Arcee was about to grab the cable of the crane when she saw Starscream's shadow grow over her.

"Time to unload some more deadweight." Starscream said as he was about to grab her.

"Not a chance, Screamer." Sky said jumping in front of him and pushing him back with the Force.

Just before Starscream could get up, he found himself floating in middle of the air.

"What? What is going on?!" He asked alarmed, just before he saw the three kids concentrating together in the Force. "No! Not again! Not another one of your Jedi tricks!"

"Optimus, he's all yours!" Leia called.

Starscream turned to see Optimus climbing up the crane and jumping at him. The punch he gave him was strong enough to send him out of the crane. Starscream managed to grab the crate of red energon and a stockpile before he slipped.

"No! AAARG!" Starscream screamed as he fell.

With the Decepticon gone, Optimus grabbed the cable and started to pull of it, but suddenly the crane started to shake: they looked down to see Starscream ripping the base of the crane apart.

"Watch your step, Autobots and Jedi." Starscream said laughing maniacally.

That made them to begin to lose their balance, and the kids almost fell, if it wasn't for their Autobot friends who grabbed them. Starscream almost managed to take out the base when a ground bridge portal appeared next to him. Then, a blue and white SolarNova TT-86 landspeeder with a 38 on the doors came driving through it, and Luke was on top of it.

Arcee deduced who was the speeder. "Apparently no one defined low profile for him."

"You mean Smokescreen?" Sky asked.

"And Luke too." Aris spotted.

The speeder transformed, confirming Sky's question.

"So, the Autobots have a new recruit." Starscream observed.

"And you must be Starscream. I thought you'd be taller." Smokescreen mocked, which worked, because Starscream groaned mad.

"This will not end well." Leia deduced.

"Smokescreen, Luke, stand down. You are no match for Starscream's Apex Armor!" Optimus warned.

"We know it, but we also have a surprise for him." Luke said smiling.

"Any last words, Smokescreen and Luke?" Starscream asked.

"Just four: kiss your armor goodbye." Smokescreen answered as the phase shifter activated, now on his wrist.

Smokescreen charged against Starscream, jumped and kicked Starscream. But this time, the effect was different: Smokey passed through the armor and kicked Starscream out of it.

"A phase shifter?" Starscream asked in disbelief.

"Now that was a plan!" Smokey said triumphal as the armor collapsed.

"Yeah! Way to go, Smokey!" The children exclaimed happy, which the Autobot answered saluting them.

"I'm starting to like that guy." Cliff admitted, while Arcee simply rolled her eyes and sighed in annoyance.

Luke ignited his lightsaber. "Since now you lost your advantage, you should surrender and stop fighting us or run away while you can as always."

Starscream got alarmed at seeing the Jedi weapon that now could cause him serious damage. But also saw the piece of red energon next to him, so he stood up. "You aren't the only one sporting a fancy wrist mounted device." Starscream said as he aimed one of his missiles at the crane. "Think fast!"

And he fired it. Before it impacted, the Autobots threw the kids at Smokescreen, who instantly grabbed them all. The missile impacted on the crane, causing a huge explosion.

"No." Smokescreen said as he covered himself and the children from the rubble.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Starscream grabbed the red energon and left. But when the smoke cleared, they could see the Autobots without damage on top of the rubble.

"Phew, that was close." Luke said in relief.

"At least we managed to get the indestructible armor from Starscream's hands." Sky pointed at the armor.

"And that's not at all." Leia added as she and Aris pulled out a few pieces of red energon. "We managed to get all we could before you two appeared."

"You little ones are full of surprises." Smokescreen said.

Moments later, everyone was back at base.

"Told you I just needed to borrow it for a while. Doc here thought I was trying to steal your relics." Smokescreen told everyone with the phase shifter at hand.

But Ratchet grabbed it. "Only until you and Luke explained your plan, which I then sanctioned. It's called protocol."

"Ratchet is correct: standard procedure must be observed by every member of this team." Optimus supported, making Smokescreen lower his head. "However, I believe we must also commend Smokescreen. You've proven to be a quick study by choosing to play strategy above bravado, and make teamwork with another member, non Autobot, of this team."

"There's gonna be no living with him now." Arcee said.

"Cut it out, Arcee. The kid earned it." Cliff said.

"While this may lock the pageantry of a proper Elite Guard ceremony, I wish to welcome you to Team Prime." Optimus declared.

Smokescreen felt happy to be accepted by the team. But not everyone was happy: Bulkhead was moaning at the corridor's entrance with a sad expression on his face.

"The newbie did alright." Bulkhead assumed as he looked the Apex Armor next to him.

"Don't worry Bulk, he's got nothing on you." Han said running at him.

Bulkhead didn't say anything, he only turned back and walked down the corridor.

"Seriously, once we get that leg of yours back in shape, old Smokey's gonna learn real quick who the top wrecking ball is around here." Han tried to cheer him again, but Bulkhead remained silent. "Bulkhead?"

All what was heard was the sound of Bulkhead dragging his legs as he disappeared into the shadows.