Robotech vs Transformers: Revenge Road

Chapter Twenty-three

"Things are THAT bad for the Decepticons on Cybertron?" Iron Hide drawled as the human and Autobot forces held a tele-conference.

Alita-One was at one of the human bases, the decision having being made to get her to the nearest safe haven. The Decepticons weren't dumb, and probably would have mobilized a larger strike force to eliminate her if they could. Plus, it also gave the canny leader a chance to evaluate the human's weapons and technology.

"Their morale has declined seriously," Alita-One reported. "While official reports of Megatron's losses on Earth haven't been released, they couldn't cover up the loss of the space-bridge."

Chromia grinned, "And there's leaked reports getting out too. Personally I think it's some underling of Shockwave hoping to gain power after the big guys are ousted..."

"That's a dangerous game to be playing," Captain Claudia Grant noted. "So how is the falling morale affecting things?"

"The actual Decepticon military has always been held together by fear of their leaders," Alita-One informed them, "And a lot of the depended on Megatron at least looking unstoppable. That's been badly shaken."

"The loyalty of the army itself is still pretty solid," Chromia noted, "but the rank and file Decepticon on the street is really questioning their bosses. We're also seeing more underground assistance cropping up for the Autobots."

"Do you think one of the Decepticon commanders will rise up against Megatron?" Optimus Prime asked over the video link.

Alita-one made a so-so gesture. "All of them are ambitious and have quietly built up their factions, but all of them are scared of Shockwave, and he's still loyally behind Megatron," she said.

"So take out Shockwave and watch the fireworks," Claudia suggested.

"It's been tried a few times," Hot Rod informed the human officers grimly, "he's pretty damn tough."

"Damn right," Arcee agreed, the pink Autobot having been part of one such raid. It had been a massacre on their side, and she had been lucky to escape alive.

"I think someone will try for Shockwave if you keep the Decepticons on the ropes here," Chromia said, "and when that happens, we'll be ready."

"Jump them while they're fighting?" Rick Hunter offered, having hung around after delivering the Autobots here.

"Let them beat each other up and jump the survivors," Alita-one corrected with a grin.

"Works for me," Iron Hide grinned.

Optimus looked over at Claudia, "How soon can Alita-One and Chromia be transported to the Ark? We need to do a full debrief on what's happening on Cybertron."

"We're still discussing the best way to do that," Claudia admitted, "but I'm favoring a military convoy to the Ark, mostly made up of hover tanks, along with variable fighters."

"Isn't that a little excessive?" Alita-One had to ask.

"If you get blown up in our care," Claudia shrugged, "it'll be very very bad both for human/Autobot relations and morale."

"She's got a point, boss," Chromia said dryly.

"Fair enough," Alita-One conceded.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

On Fortress-One, Lisa Hayes was buttoning up her uniform shirt, her hair slightly messy and a satisfied smile on her face. Still sprawled on the bed Izzy Randal stretched, catlike, the green haired younger woman smiling up at Lisa warmly.

"I wish we didn't have to go back to work," Lisa admitted as she dressed. "This had been a wonderful few days."

"Me too," Izzy admitted. She got up, looking up at the slightly taller Lisa as she said, "I don't want this to just be a one time thing..."

Lisa took her in her arms, squeezing gently as she agreed, "Me too." She took a breath, "It's been a VERY long time since I've even dated someone, but I'd like to try."

"Yeah," Izzy agreed. She made a face, "Not that we're going to have much time to date in the next week or so..."

Both woman groaned as Izzy reluctantly got dressed too. Izzy, as one of the most senior pilots, was almost certainly to be part of the convoy to the Ark. Similarly Lisa would be tied up organizing everything, and was planing to accompany them too.

"When do you have to check in?" Lisa asked as she tried to tidy her mussed hair.

"Fifteen minutes," Izzy said as she tucked her shirt into her pants, "But I want to get there early to check up on Dixon, Hunter and Sterling. Sorry."

Lisa pouted, but nodded. "Ok, can we meet up after work?" she asked.

"Your place or mine?" Izzy offered with a smile.

"Mine," Lisa decided, "it's bigger, but not by much."

Izzy and Lisa snuck another kiss in, then both women hurried off to their jobs.

The bridge was as busy as ever, with Roy over at the fighter command station, Claudia in the captain's chair and the newly promoted Nova Satori over at communications. Lisa saluted Claudia as tradition dictated, then headed to her station.

"Welcome back, ma'am," Nova smiled a bit hesitantly. They had some history, after all.

"Thanks," Lisa flashed a smile.

"Sorry we had to call you back so soon," Claudia apologized, "I had hoped to give you a week off, but..."

"Once I heard we had the Cybertronian Autobot leader drop in our lap, I kind of figured my vacation was over," Lisa said with a shrug. "Not your fault."

"Thanks," Claudia smiled. She sat back as she noted, "That's a lovely shade you have on your neck... would you call that plum?"

Lisa went pink as she realized that Izzy had gotten kind of frisky kissing her neck and the uniform did NOT cover it.

Nova coughed. "She who lives in glass houses shouldn't throw stones?" she noted.

Roy laughed, he and Claudia having been caught similarly not that long ago.

Lisa changed the subject, "Has a decision been made on how we're going to transport the Autobots to the ARK?"

"After bouncing it up the chain of command we're going for a overland trip," Claudia said. "Despite various disadvantages we think it's the best option."

"We could haul them via variable fighter, but we'd be very vulnerable to being shot down," Lisa ticked the options off, "the low orbit shuttles are similarly vulnerable, and while the Fortresses are theoretically flight capable..."

"Oh no," Roy shook his head.

Claudia hid a smile. "We'll save that option for a real emergency," she agreed.

The Fortresses all had a reverse engineered anti-gravity flight system developed by studying Decepticon technology. While on paper it was ready to go, in practice it was buggy as hell. In test flights the anti-gravity systems had torn free of their moorings, shut down randomly and had other issues. No one, frankly, wanted to use it.

"And I assume I'm the one planning out the convoy?" Lisa asked with a slight smile.

"Well, it's you or Roy," Claudia shrugged, "and if Roy was in charge it'd be a convoy of variable fighters with the Autobots in the middle, pretty much."

"Hey!" Roy protested, "I'm not THAT fixated on fighters."

"This from the man who wears veritech boxer shorts," Nova teased.

"I do not!" Roy yelped.

"Claudia?" Lisa asked impishly.

"I can not tell a lie," Claudia paused, "he's a briefs guy."

"Ugh..." Roy whimpered.

Lisa smiled wryly. "Anyway, I'll start on the mission planning tonight. I might need a few days though," she cautioned.

"We're hoping to debrief Alita-One again before we move them to the ARK, so take your time," Claudia noted. "Besides, you and Izzy need some together time too," she winked.

Lisa started to complain about Claudia airing her personal business on the bridge, but realized everyone there probably already knew anyway...

To be continued!

Notes: No, I'm generally not gonna show sex scenes. I wanna keep the fic PG basically. Meant to write a BIT longer but.. life happens. I'm mixing in a bit of the various comics Transformers series in that Decepticon leadership is basically held by force and if you slip enough, you get overthrown.