Age of Smoke Part 1: The Autobot Code
Chapter 35: The Balance of Trust
Slingshot dodged and weaved, evading the trine of seekers that was following him. He reversed his thrusters and slowed down enough that he could transform and crash pedes-first into a window of a building. Laser fire chased him inside but he ran to the next room over and returned fire out of the window there, taking one of the seekers down.
His spark pulsed irregularly. That had been close. If they'd cornered him…
Then again, it didn't really matter if he died. The only thing that kept him going besides his brothers and his friends was the slight possibility that some orn, somehow, he'd be able to get revenge on Megatron for destroying everything else he cared about.
Another seeker came into view, and he raised his gun, but then realized it was just Fireflight.
He commed the distractible mech "Hey, tagalong, what are you doing over here?"
"I got chased," Fireflight said, flying closer. "I think they must have figured out how to tell us apart or something. I didn't even get close before they started shooting at me."
"You hurt?"
"No," Fireflight said. "But I'm worried about the others."
Slingshot had had the same sort of thing happen. That was not good. He added his brothers and Skydive to the comm. as he leaped back out the window. Fireflight fell into formation behind him and they flew together toward the fighting.
The others joined the comm. and Slingshot kept a wary optic out for Decepticon seekers as he spoke over it. "Hey, where are you mechs?"
Silverbolt answered after an astrosecond. "I'm heading to my assignment. Is something wrong?"
"Air Raid?" Slingshot said.
"Kinda busy," Air Raid said.
"Look, the 'Con seekers have been acting different," Slingshot said. "Both Fireflgiht and I couldn't get into firing range before they started attacking us. They know somehow. Skydive?"
"Well, that would explain things," Air Raid gasped.
"I'll see if I can let someone know," Silverbolt said. "Hang on."
"Frag that," Slingshot said. "We're going to get picked off like groundpounders up here. We need to choose a location and meet up."
"Probably won't help," Air Raid said. "Sorry, mechs." He left the comm.
"Is he okay?" Fireflight asked.
"Yeah," Slingshot said, but he was worried. He would have noticed if Air Raid was offlined or badly hurt, and the mech hadn't sounded too panicked, but he was obviously in trouble.
"Are you two somewhere safe?" Silverbolt asked.
Slingshot landed on the top of a building and Fireflight followed suit. "Sort of. I mean, we're in the middle of a battlefield, Silverbolt, I don't think you can ask that question."
"You know what I mean. Don't engage any seekers until I've had word from Command."
"You got it," Slingshot said.
A couple of seekers flew past several buildings away.
Silverbolt spoke over the comm. again. "Skydive?" he said. "Skydive, please respond. Are you all right?"
They wouldn't be able to tell if Skydive was online or not. He wasn't part of their trine.
The Decepticon seekers turned and headed back toward them.
Well, that wasn't good.
"Come on, let's go," he muttered to Fireflight, and jumped off the building. He transformed and led the other mech away from the seekers, who started firing on them as soon as they were in the air.
Skydive's voice came over the comm, startling him. "Sorry… under fire… trying to disengage."
Something hit Slingshot's wing, and he cut the comm. and dove down between buildings, then flipped over to shoot at his attackers.
Only one of them was chasing him. Where was...
Growling, Slingshot weaved between buildings, trying to get a good shot at the mech pursuing Fireflight.
Another plasma blast hit him from behind and he darted around a building and dove for the ground, then banked so hard he almost flipped over, trying to circle the building and get behind his attacker.
A shot from the side just barely missed him and he realized that he could hear more engines coming.
Silverbolt commed him on the frequency they'd been using before.
"We've been given orders to converge at coordinates central to our positions," Silverbolt said. "I'll pass them along."
"Um…" Air Raid's voice said. "What if I'm dragging a swarm with me?"
"That's part of the orders," Silverbolt said. "Bring as many seekers as you can."
Slingshot checked the coordinates, then turned, powering his thrusters to full and skimming dangerously close to the empty streets.
"Slag it!" Air Raid said. "I told Dawn I was coming back."
"Frag those Autobots," Slingshot said. "We need to get out of here, not get ourselves surrounded in some stupid suicide thing."
"They must have a plan of some sort," Silverbolt said calmly.
"Yes," Slingshot scoffed, powering his thrusters even harder. He could hear engines behind and above him. "And I'm pretty sure it involves all of us offlining. Fireflight, where did you go? Are you still following me?"
"No," Fireflight sounded desperate. "I've lost you. I've got the coordinates, though, and I'm trying to head there."
"I'm not sure how we expect to get out of this," Skydive's voice was shaking. "They're obviously tracking and targeting us specifically. The only way we get out of this is if the Autobots have some sort of plan in place to save us."
"We have to trust them," Silverbolt said. "Take to the lower streets if you can."
"You mean, go underground?" Skydive said. "Aahhhh!"
"Skydive!" Silverbolt shouted.
"I'm okay," Skydive said. "Sorry."
Slingshot could hear the other seekers closing in on him. He saw a street that led down to the lower levels and dove into it. Every instinct screamed that he was going too fast for being underground—that he would crash and be crushed beneath the weight of the city above.
But it bought him a few moments of respite from the blaster fire his fellow Vosians had been raining down on him.
"I'm hit!" Fireflight's voice said over the comm. "I have to land!"
"Where are you?" Silverbolt said. "Coordinates, Fireflight!"
Fireflight transmitted coordinates, then left the comm. channel.
"Everyone re-route," Silverbolt said. "Meet at Fireflight's coordinates."
Slingshot slowed and rounded a tight corner of the under-streets, feeling shaky and confined. He tried to vent evenly, fighting off the panic coursing through his energon lines. The walls were closing in…
But he needed to get to those coordinates. Fireflight could be dead.
Slingshot screamed as he sped up again, zipping past side streets and underground buildings.
He turned another corner and everything was suddenly on fire. Groundpounders everywhere, shooting at each other. An explosion went off beneath him and Slingshot instinctively tried to fly up to avoid it, but almost crashed into the ceiling.
Another explosion went off, this one close enough that the blast pushed him up into the roof. He felt himself slide across it, leaving paint and mesh behind.
Then he turned around another corner and everything was still again.
He was almost to Fireflight. He needed to find a way out of this dark, confining pit.
There.
The sky.
He ducked toward it. Fireflight was just a few klicks away.
He shot out of the under-streets into the open atmosphere.
Seekers swarmed above him.
"I'm here," Air Raid's voice said. "There are seekers everywhere and I can't see Fireflight."
"I'm coming," Slingshot said. "Two astroseconds."
The wind stung the lacerated top of his fuselage and he'd lost a tail fin so steering was difficult.
The seekers started shooting at him, dropping bombs down toward them. He rose into the swarm.
There was no way Fireflight was still online.
They were all going to die.
He saw what looked like Silverbolt flying toward him from a nearby street. Something hit Slingshot's wing and he spun out of control.
"Where's Skydive?" Silverbolt demanded.
"Coming!"
"Come faster! We're not going to make it."
Slingshot barely managed to right himself.
Fireflight suddenly spoke over the comm. "Go to the building at these coordinates and land right in front of it!" He sent them a new, even closer set of coordinates.
"Fireflight!" Silverbolt said, relief evident in his voice.
"Hurry!" Fireflight's voice called.
Slingshot could see the building. He put on a burst of speed, diving lower to the ground so that he could land.
Suddenly, the sky above was filled with fire and then smoke blocked out the sun.
"Everyone hurry!" Silverbolt said.
Air Raid landed a few astroseconds before him and stumbled past the Autobot guarding the door and into the building.
Tendrils of smoke fell down from the thick black cloud above, leaving long vertical trails behind them.
Slingshot slowed, transformed, and landed hard. The groundpounder ran over to help him up as Silverbolt landed nearby.
There was a crash above, and a couple of seekers fell down through the smoke, to land in a tangle of mesh and internals on the ground. Slingshot found himself half-supported, half-carried into the building.
"What…" he said. "That smoke…"
"Smoke bomb," the mech said. "I didn't even know Pyro had one that big. It'll blow away in a breem or so, but by then you mechs'll be safe, and we can sit here and pick them off while they look for you."
Slingshot heard an engine nearby and another mech stepped past him and opened fire on the seeker that had flown beneath the smoke.
Then they were inside and the mech handed him off to Air Raid.
He looked around, realizing to his surprise that he recognized these mechs.
"You…" he said. "How did you…"
"We were in the area," the green gladiator, Springer, said. "Lucky Air Raid thought to comm. us."
"Lucky you were able to do something," Air Raid said.
Silverbolt came up behind them. "Where's Fireflight?"
"I can't get there," Skydive said over the comm. "There's all this smoke…"
Silverbolt put a hand to his helm. "Fly below the smoke. Hurry, before it dissipates."
"Barrage, Seaspray, Roadbuster," the big mech, Impactor, said. "Go get that last Autobot. Pyro says he can see him and the seekers are converging on him."
Three Wreckers left the building.
"Let's get you four somewhere safe," Impactor said.
"We'll wait for Skydive," Silverbolt said.
Slingshot shuttered his optics and turned down his pain receptors as far as they would go.
"Whoa," Air Raid said as he swayed. "Mech, I've got a bad leg."
"Then why are you supporting me?" Slingshot demanded.
"Here," Silverbolt came over. He was leaking from a nasty side wound and covered in burns, but he looked steady at least. Air Raid passed Slingshot off to him, and Slingshot gritted his denta against another wave of pain. He'd probably lost all his outer armor on his back.
"Where's Fireflight?" Slingshot asked again.
"Next room over," Springer said. "He's pretty badly hurt, but last I heard he was still conscious."
There was a loud explosion just outside and a few astroseconds later, two of the three Wreckers that had been sent came back in, carrying an unconscious Skydive.
"Okay, let's move," Impactor said. "Get these seekers down below, somewhere defensible, until we can clear the skies."
"Underground?" Silverbolt said.
"Yeah," Impactor replied. "Tough it out, mech, you wanna live, don't you?"
Slingshot shuddered. He'd already been underground too much this orn.
But he let Silverbolt support him as they followed a small group of Wreckers into the hall. They were joined by another mech, carrying a barely conscious Fireflight.
Then they came to a flight of stairs and headed down into the basement of the building.
First Aid got a cube of med grade and went to sit on his berth. His spark ached. It hurt so much that he didn't even want the energon, even though his tanks were almost completely empty. He sipped it anyway, grimacing.
They all thought of him as a mechling, but right now he felt thousands of vorns old.
He'd seen mecha offline.
He'd seen the light go out of their optics.
He'd seen that before. He'd seen it in the medbay, he'd seen it out on the battlefield when they'd been fighting the Autobots. He'd seen it in Kaon too, before the war. One of his street friends had been an orphan—her creators had been taken for the mines, and she had no one to take her to the medics, so she hadn't gotten an upgrade in time.
One orn they'd found her curled up on the side of the street, screaming.
She had screamed for joors before she'd finally stopped.
His other friends had been uncomfortable, and they'd left her, but First Aid had stayed, talked to her, tried to help her feel better.
And so he'd been there when her optics went dark. He'd heard it when her spark had imploded. He'd seen death before.
He took another sip of energon.
He'd seen death, but he'd never seen so much, and he'd never been part of them in this way. This orn, he'd participated in the last desperate moments of life, of trying to stay alive, of trying to keep mecha alive. Carrying tools, cleaning them, moving equipment, lending a hand with some of the repairs even, as he was needed.
His spark burned and he hunched forward with a gasp. It took a few breems for the pain to retreat.
He took another sip of the med grade.
His tanks churned.
That was enough. Any more energon and he'd lose it all.
He swung his legs up on the berth and carefully re-connected himself to all the monitoring equipment. His tanks churned again and he shuttered his optics, focusing on trying not to bring the energon back up.
They needed all the energon they had. He didn't want to waste any more.
When he felt a little better, he glanced over at the monitors.
He wasn't surprised that he wasn't doing very well.
He felt like slag.
He'd watched grown mecha offline this orn. Grown mecha who'd given their lives for this cause—this cause that he wanted to be a part of too.
He'd have to try again to convince his brothers how important it was.
He had to be a medic.
He had to be an Autobot medic.
If only he'd known. His friend, back in Kaon, could have been saved. He knew what to do now—where to take her.
But it was too late. She'd been offline for three quarters of a vorn, since before the war had started.
He couldn't reach back in time to save her.
But he might be able to help mecha in the future.
He was drifting off into recharge when Ratchet came over.
"What the frag happened?" he demanded. "First Aid?"
First Aid un-shuttered his optics. "Hmm?"
"Pit, you're covered in energon. What…"
"I'm not hurt," First Aid mumbled. "Should… I should have washed off, but I was too… tired. I'm tired, Ratchet, and my spark hurts. Can you…"
"What?" Ratchet said. "I… I told you to stay there! Who helped disconnect you? How did they do that without alerting me?"
First Aid took in a deep vent, trying to force himself to stay away. "I… did it myself. I just…"
Ratchet grumbled under his breath. "Never mind. Let me do something about that pain so you can get some recharge."
"Thanks," First Aid muttered.
He felt Ratchet lift him up and access his sensory grid control panel.
The ache in his spark lessened and First Aid was recharging almost before Ratchet helped him lie down again.
The meeting had been going for about ten breems when Optimus looked over and noticed Jazz was there, sitting in his usual spot, between Mainspring and Prowl. The mech's lip plates quirked up into a sort of half smirk as he saw Optimus looking at him.
"…if we can coordinate the relief efforts with the other cities who are allied with us," Chromia said. "Elita says negotiating that's kind of slow going, but we've started already, so hopefully by the time we've won in Slaughter City, there will be other city-states who are ready to step in and help try to put everything back together…"
Optimus saw Mainspring jump as he noticed Jazz sitting next to him, and tried to hide his amusement.
"…the second option is expanding our resource corps of volunteers who want to help without fighting. If we promote that we might eventually be able to be the primary source of relief efforts again."
"Thank you," Optimus said. "We'll continue to consider the issue. For now, I believe promoting the rescue teams option is the best course of action."
"I'll work on that," Chromia said.
Elita nodded. "I can help there too."
Red Alert gasped.
Everyone looked at him.
"Sorry," he said, looking at Jazz. "When did you get here?"
"Primus," Chromia said. "We were just talking about how you weren't here, Jazz."
Jazz shrugged. "Came in a couple of breems late. Thanks ta his doorwings, I think Prowl was the only one who noticed me right away." He grinned at the Praxian. "I'll figure out how ta sneak up on you some orn, though."
"Thank you for coming, Jazz," Optimus said. "Do you have anything to report about Pescus Hex?"
"Yeah," Jazz said, getting out a datapad. "An' I don't even need ta give a report. I'll have Senator Reef of the Pescus Hex Council do it for me."
He set the datapad on the table and tapped it.
There was a quiet beep like a comm. being activated. And then Megatron's voice, with its distinctive rasp, filled the room.
"I've been told you think you have something to offer me. Be brief—I don't have much time to waste speaking to Councilmechs."
There was a pause and then another voice—this one nasally and trembling slightly. "Yes. The Pescus Hex Council would like to offer you a deal. We… we have heard about the way you've treated Sistex and Doradus, and we would also like to align ourselves with you."
"You don't need some sort of special deal for that," Megatron said.
"Well, we want to be allies, you see… subordinates of course, but we, as a Council, would like to remain in control of the city itself."
Silence on the other end, for a moment.
"Unfortunately," Megatron said. "That isn't how this works. Good orn, Senator, for now…"
"Wait!" the second voice said. "Lord Megatron, wait. We can give you Optimus Prime."
"What?" Megatron said.
"We've been trying to lure him here under the pretense of making an alliance with the Autobots. Once he agrees, we'll capture him and hand him over to you. That's the deal we wanted to offer you."
"Hmm," Megatron said. "Allow your Council to remain in power in return for Optimus… that is a difficult decision. I'd almost consider it a fair trade. How certain are you that you can deliver, though?"
"Well… we don't have him yet. Like I said, we're working on it. We just wanted to see if you would be willing to make a deal like that."
There was another pause as if Megatron was considering that.
"Very well," he said. "This is the deal. Deliver Optimus Prime to me and I will allow you to continue ruling your city, under me. However, if you fail to give me the Prime, I will burn Pescus Hex to the ground and all of you with it. Is that clear?"
"But… we didn't say we…"
"Good orn, senator."
There was another beep.
"So yeah," Jazz said, pulling the datapad back over to him. "I think that pretty much clears that up."
"How did you get that conversation?" Red Alert demanded, optics narrowed.
"Ain't ya ever tapped a comm. Red?" Jazz said. "Come on, mech."
"But how did you know to tap his comm."
"Simple," Jazz said. "I didn't. I monitored all the comms leaving the Council Hall, looking for ones going ta Kaon, to see if they were trying ta communicate with Megatron at all. And then I got lucky. That does happen sometimes."
Red Alert glared at him.
"What?"
"You know, I did find Blaster eventually."
"That's good," Jazz said. "I figured ya had, since ya stopped pestering me about it."
"He was in the ventilation system again. I'm going to have to completely re-do the security in the entire base, thanks to you teaching that little…"
"Wait, Blaster?" Chromia said. "He's the little telepath mechling, right? He was in the ventilation system?"
"Yes!" Red Alert said. "Because Jazz taught him how to get past my security."
"Hey," Jazz said. "We've had this conversation before, mech, it's you he learned it from, not me."
"And for all we know he could have gone with you to Pescus Hex."
"What the frag, mech?" Jazz said. "How could I have brought him? When did ya find him anyway?"
Red Alert scowled. "Several joors after you left."
"Mech, ya told me he went missing before or during the meeting where I got assigned ta go ta Pescus Hex. Ya're sayin…"
"Just before, I think," Red Alert said.
"So I somehow planned the whole thing in advance," Jazz said. "And then I snuck Blaster out of the base ta Pescus Hex with me, then snuck him back again?"
"I don't know!" Red Alert said.
"Sneaked," Prowl muttered.
"Can you argue about this later?" Elita snapped. "We have an actual problem to discuss."
"This is an actual problem!" Red Alert insisted.
"Red Alert," Optimus said, and the mech deflated.
"Jazz I trust that you did not, in fact, bring Blaster with you on your mission."
"I did not bring him with me," Jazz said solemnly. "And since he sneaked out of his quarters, I'm not gonna train him anymore, not until he's an adult."
Optimus nodded. "I believe that is a wise decision. Now, the conversation we just heard presents us with a difficult choice."
"It doesn't seem so difficult to me," Chromia said. "Are you really considering going to meet with them."
"Unfortunately," Prowl said, "Megatron has the power to make good on his threat. If he were to attack a city such as Pescus Hex with all of his strength it would be difficult for us to prevent him from destroying it. It would be expensive for him, but not to the point where it would endanger his cause. The only reason he doesn't normally tear the cities to the ground—as far as we know—is because he actually wants them intact when he takes over."
Optimus nodded. "My own safety is not as important as the lives in an entire city."
"Are you serious?" Chromia demanded.
"Who's to say he won't kill them anyway?" Elita pointed out. "Optimus, he's slaughtered every single Council in the past, regardless of whether they gave him the city or not. Even in Sistex and Doradus. And you're more valuable than you seem to understand. Now that the Core has gone dark, you're our only connection to Primus."
"We can start making preparations to defend Pescus Hex, in case of Decepticon attack," Prowl said. "If we know they're coming, we'll stand a chance of rebuffing them."
"We should let them know we are willing to defend them from the Decepticons," Optimus said.
"On the other hand," Jazz said. "I don't know if we wanna let them know we're spying on them."
"True," Prowl said. "If the Decepticons know we're planning to defend the city, that makes it more difficult again."
"So this shouldn't leave this room," Jazz tapped the datapad that was still sitting on the table. "Nomech else should know about this."
"If I refuse to go speak to the Pescus Hex Council, will it look suspicious?"
"Optimus, you can't go to Pescus Hex," Elita said. "We can't risk that."
Technically, Optimus could if he wanted to. He met his bonded's optics and knew that she could tell what he was thinking.
"I agree," Mainspring said. "I'm sure we all do. There's no reason you should travel personally to cities that want to make alliances. Not when you could talk to them remotely."
Part of him wanted to insist on going to Pescus Hex and trying to sway them toward the Autobots, but he couldn't deny the validity of his friends' concerns.
Elita had counseled him to trust them, to allow them the responsibility of helping him make decisions.
"Very well," he said. "I will not go personally. But I would still like to speak to them. Elita will you attempt to arrange a meeting via holoscreen?"
"Yes," Elita said, and he could feel almost tangible relief over the bond.
"Jazz, do you have anything else to report?"
"Not since last orn," Jazz said.
"Prowl, how is the battle in Slaughter City?"
Prowl started laying out the current situation there, and the meeting continued.
Notes:
1. Sorry this is days late. Got no excuse this time, I just kept putting it off.
2. Thanks for reading!