Disclaimer: I only own my OCs. Vox belongs to a friend.

Lord Megatron: Interesting. You may redeem yourself yet Authoress.

Authoress: Why thank...*thinks about what was said as Lord Megatron walks away*...what do you mean? I thought I redeemed myself already?

Knockout: *shakes helm* Femme, you won't be redeemed until you stop writing.

Authoress: *pauses* So that means never? *cries* That's not fair!

Chapter 36: A Change In Venue

Starscream's 1st P.O.V.

Everything finally fell into place. Well, everything that had been a puzzle about Pandimala that was. So much information she had in her helm without a way to show us, to prove what she was to us. It was easy to see in her memories that there were times that she wanted to. It was obvious during several situations when we were in danger of something she knew might happen. The immediate example coming to processor was when Thundercracker had been sent with Airachnid for her test. Pandimala, back then Lizzie, had been terrified about him being gone with her the entire time. Even when she had tried to hide it, the worry she had felt for my brother's safety had been easy to see. At the time, I had assumed that she was finally starting to fear the huntress as she should have. However, seeing what was supposed to happen during that, what happened to me in that timeline, her fear made more sense.

There were, of course, situations where the femme had also used her knowledge of what was supposed to happen to make decisions that benefited our cause. Firstly, there was her suggestion that we use the space telescopes to pinpoint Cybertron during the space bridge debacle. Then, there was the way that she guided all of our interactions with the human organization MECH and had us keep track of their movements. Thirdly, she used her previous knowledge of the shadow zone to bring my brother and Skyquake back to us.

Most importantly, she used her knowledge of other versions of different Decepticons and Autobots to prepare us for what they might do. Not to say that we all turned out like she was familiar with, however, her hesitation and distrust of Astrotrain, Airachnid, and Thrust had been well-founded and had allowed us to keep our ship clean. I had no doubt in my processor that Lord Megatron would be removing Thrust from the Decepticons and, hopefully, from existence, upon his return to the ship. The mech had moved too quickly with Pandimala, and that had been his downfall. As I had thought before, Pandimala had a way of causing well-thought-out plans to crumble quickly.

"Skyquake" I focused on Lord Megatron as he started to speak. "Report to DIGS and inform them of the possible situations that might arise from MECH. Having this knowledge will put us at a forefront on that field."

"Yes my Lord," Skyquake responded before leaving the room.

"Shockwave, Soundwave, Vox, Thundercracker; You four are to update all of our files on the information that has been gathered during this patch. Use the recording of the patch should you need to reference any memory of hers." The four gave their affirmations before leaving the room. "Knockout, Hook; you are ordered to take the rest of the solar to recuperate. Keeping watch on the patch and our vitals for these many solars will have put a strain on your systems."

"Yes, Lord Megatron." Knockout and Hook responded before they left since Knockout had already administered the sedative to Pandimala.

"Breakdown and Dreadwing, you two will watch the medical bays in their stead. I know both of you have enough experience to handle this while our medics recuperate." The two went to do so. "Starscream, you will accompany me to the bridge. The rest of you are to use the time available as you see fit, as long as you do not enter this room. Pandimala has put a heavy strain on her systems and she needs to recuperate from that. I will be assigning four drones to stand outside of her door to see that she is not disturbed. You are dismissed."

Soon, it was just Lord Megatron and myself standing in the room with Pandimala. After a few clicks, I followed our leader out of the room, the four drones just arriving. At first, the walk was silent between us. I could tell from his faceplate that my Lord was deep in thought, about what I was not sure. However, I felt like he would tell me shortly. Otherwise, he would not have asked me to accompany him.

However, as the clicks progressed, I started to wonder if Lord Megatron had become lost in his thoughts, "My Lord, are you alright?" He had just spent solars inside Pandimala's helm and had taken in a lot of information.

He stood quietly for a few more nanos before he gave a slow nod. "While there was much that I expected in the helm of our strategist, there was much that gave me pause for thought. Seeing so much in her helm, and experiencing her past, was optic-opening." Something told me that my Lord was only being this open with me because we were alone and because of the sheer amount of information he had just witnessed.

"Her memories were extensive. It is strange to think that so much knowledge was just waiting to be brought out to us. Not just past knowledge either. Her fight with Thrust showed that he can no longer be trusted. What do you wish to do Lord Megatron?"

His gaze turned sharp at my mention of Thrust and his betrayal. I knew that it would cause us to be short on ranking numbers, however, I also knew that removing any trouble at the start would save us even more disruptions later. "Waiting to act on this knowledge would prove folly, as we saw with Pandimala and her memories. When she, and we, waited to act, it brought about consequences."

"What do you need me to do?"

"Starscream," He finally spoke. "Out of all of my troops aboard the Nemesis, you have the most experience and knowledge about Thrust. How do you believe we should proceed moving forward and rid this plane of existence of his presence?"

He was asking me? While I knew I could strategize well enough, I was also knowledgeable enough to know that there were others on the ship that could do so better than me. While it was true that I held the most experience with Thrust, it was only recently that the trust between Lord Megatron and myself had started to mend. Before Pandimala's arrival on the ship, I was just as ready as Thrust was to remove Lord Megatron from his post. I would have manipulated the situation to my advantage to give me a clear shot at becoming the leader.

Now, however, I would not hold anything back from Lord Megatron and tell him my advice on this situation. "In my experience, it would be foolish to think that he does not know we suspect him. He will already be making countermeasures against anything that may come to him. The only positive I may have about this is that he greatly underestimates Pandimala's influence on the ship. He will not suspect just how much we know, only that we will eventually know of it."

"This is a decent advantage. However, do you think he will plan?" My Lord asked me.

As we entered the bridge, I let out a scoff. "While Thrust puts up smoke and mirrors as being a great strategist, his escape plan is, in basic understanding, the same two-step plan each time. First, he creates separation between himself and those who pursue him discreetly. He will assure that he is well out of reach before he can be taken down. Lastly, comes the distraction. He manipulates elements around his pursuers to stall and delay their advancement towards finding him. The more chaos he can create during this time, the more time he has to cover his trail."

"So we must move swiftly," Lord Megatron responded to me before he moved to go onto his comm. However, before he spoke, the ship's alarms started blaring and, not long after the ship was sent rocking after a loud explosion was heard. "What is happening?" There was silence from Lord Megatron for a few nanos before he spoke again. "Starscream, move to the lower decks near the space bridge."

"My Lord, what is happening?" I dared ask as I moved to follow him.

I flinched as he turned his gaze toward me for a nano. The anger held within it was very easy to feel even if I was not looking at it. What has happened? "The Autobots have somehow gained access to the ship and have launched a full assault against us. We shall use the advantage of our tactical location to drive them away. Then, we shall continue our discussion more in-depth."

I nodded in agreement. We needed to repel these invaders from our hold before we could continue our discussion about Thrust and his betrayal. That could wait. The integrity of our ship and preventing damage could not.

Ironhide's 1st P.O.V.

"Put 'em up 'Cons!"

I readjusted my optics as, yet again, I found myself in another empty room.

Slag it! I was getting the reports from the others saying that they were all fighting the 'Cons, or finding other items of use like energon. Me? I kept finding these fragging empty rooms. It seemed that wherever I went, there were no enemies in sight. I wanted to punch some faceplate in and all I got was boring slag!

After closing that door, I made my way to the next doorway. There had to be something in this Primus forsaken ship that I would find. An enemy, a weapon, frag anything!

Including the hostage. As I moved, I thought about Prime's mission objective. Despite what I wanted to do, like bashing in some Decepticon helms, our main objective was to rescue the human. Of course, that was even if she was still alive. Months as a prisoner of the Decepticons didn't have the best odds for a bot, let alone a fragile being like a human. Most likely, we were going to probably find evidence that the 'Cons had done in with her a while ago.

Of course, I wasn't going to be the one to tell Paul that. For a human, he could be intimidating when he wanted to be. Plus, he had his human spark holding onto the hope that his employee was still online. Whichever unlucky bot was unfortunate enough to draw the short rust-stick in having to tell him was fragging screwed. Not only could the older human male cause said bot problems, but Paul probably wouldn't hesitate in setting Miko on the poor unfortunate bot and, while Paul had a presence of being intimidating, Miko took that to another level. If she ever gained the ability to fight us eventually, she would be a tough opponent to beat, despite her age.

"Bring it Decepticreeps!" I yelled, cannons primed, as I opened the next door.

…

Slag it all! I was about to turn to leave when I did a double-take. While there were no Decepticons here, there seemed to be something in the middle of the room. As I moved closer to it, my processor caught up to what was in front of me. There, before me, was the Urzichos Cannon. Short and stout barrel attached to a longer mount. Latches on for aim that matches the user's servo. Draws from natural energon around it and the user. Allows for prolonged full-power use in battle. Add in rapid-firing capabilities and easy maneuverability and this was the dream cannon. Now, with this raid, it was all mine.

Breaking the barrier surrounding the cannon, I gently took the weapon out before placing it onto my arm. A feeling of completion came over me as the weapon started to sync with the rest of my systems. I was going to love having this in my arsenal.

"That doesn't belong to you Autobot," I smirk came on my faceplate before I turned to face the Decepticon. "I didn't pin the Autobots as thieves."

"Not stealing if I take it away from your lots servos," I shot right back. "Dreadwing,"

The Decepticon known for the loyalty he held for the Decepticons raised an optic ridge at that. "So you Autobots believe in breaking the laws as long as they serve your purposes. This should not surprise me."

I had enough of his talking so, I launched at the mech and the two of us clashed blades. Of course, as we did, I finally realized what I could say back against the mech, "Kinda backward talking coming from you lot. Taking any species not directly involved in the fighting hostage is a breach in many accords that the Galactic Alliance has put out. While Cybertron isn't a part of the Alliance, our code of conduct for a battle is derived from theirs." Of course, the Autobots had been working for millions of stellars to try and become a member. However, the Alliance was staunchly set against letting us in. Of course, the Decepticons were not in either so that was a good thing. However, we could use the resources that they could provide us.

"I know not of what hostage you speak of Autobot," Was the immediate response from the mech.

Finally, there was the proof that I needed. Out of the vocals of a loyal and honorable Decepticon. There was no hostage on the ship because she was already dead. Paul's employee was no longer alive. That would mean that, outside of whatever we managed to bring back with us, this mission was a failure. There wouldn't be a recovery. If Dreadwing, one of the newer 'Cons on the planet, didn't know of the human than she was offline before his arrival. Who knew how long the 'Cons had kept her alive before the obliterated her?

For a nano, I felt a pang of regret at not being able to rescue the human. From the stories that Paul spoke of about the human, she would have been an interesting one to know. She wouldn't have taken any slag from Pitch, Flamewar, or Sentinel. Watching her most likely chew them out would have been great to see, even if I would have to protect her from the three after that. From the stories, she would have probably been snatched up by the Wreckers before the rest of us could do much. Since Bulkhead already had Miko as a charge, then I would bet that Seaspray would be the one to get her. Wheeljack was an option, but he seemed like too much of a lone-cyberwolf bot to want a charge.

Of course, that alone was in question with how interactive he was with Zarron and the new medic femme, Balm. While I grew a sort of respect for the motorcycle mech on our trip to Earth, I could tell that he was hiding something. The way that he looked at everybot, along with the lack of records in his file, showed me that he was preparing for something.

However, these thoughts were useless. The human femme was offline and none of what I was thinking would happen.

Seeing an opening, I forced Dreadwing back and took my chance to leave the room. I had to regroup with the others. They needed to know what I had found out, so we could retreat with what we already had. So, I made my way toward the Decepticon bridge. Optimus had been heading that way with Prowl and Jazz. They were hoping to gather more information about the Iaconian database from the Nemesis' systems.

When we returned to base, I had to make sure I was out of the room when they drew the rust sticks to pick the bot who had to tell Paul that his employee was offline. That was not going to be a great conversation to have with the man.

The sound of blaster-fire ahead had me focusing. There was still a battle going on around me and I hadn't fought nearly enough of the Decepticons to make this trip worth it.

Lord Megatron's 1st P.O.V.

Slag Prime to the Pits for this! Having to fend off an invasion from his forces so soon after a solars-long cortical psychic patch, I was struggling more than I cared to admit. While the Prime had forced Starscream and me back onto the bridge, Soundwave had arrived on the bridge not long after and had prevented the Autobot Jazz from accessing the terminals. We could not allow the Autobots to gain any information that we had stored. Right now, we had a major advantage over them and I wanted to keep it like that.

"If you wanted to visit Prime, I would have sent an envoy for you helm." I taunted my long-time opponent.

We continued to clash blades for a few clicks before the Prime responded. "You know why we are here Megatron."

I wasn't quite sure why they were here. There were many things that Prime could gain from attacking my ship. However, given our last few battle between each other, I could at least guess what he was after. "Ah, you wonder at the location of the human femme. Wish to save her like a savior Prime?"

From the sharp look that followed, I was reasonably sure that my guess was correct. "She should be returned to her people Megatron. Keeping her here is a waste of your time and painful to those humans who care for her."

"And what of you Prime?" I shot back at my rival. I knew how to get to him. Make him lose focus. He liked to make broad statements when speaking. Forcing him to specify his thoughts on the subject at servo would make him more likely to make a misstep in battle. "You speak so mightily of others who care for the human yet not a word said about how you think of her? What do you personally care about whether this one specific human is here with my Decepticons or elsewhere on this miserable rock? There are billions of humans on this planet, and yet you spend so much time and so many resources on her. Why? Why when you haven't even met her?"

There, a slight hesitation on the Prime's faceplate. While I knew my long-time opponent and the fact that he took everything personally and felt like he needed to be the one who always saved the solar, his ability to express that sort of selfish statement was going to be what tripped him up.

"She is special to one of the humans under my care, and thus I will bring her home," Prime shot at me before launching at me.

We traded more blows before I could respond. "The great Optimus Prime, dodging a simple question like that. What a shame. I thought Primes were at a higher level than others." That earned a reaction out of my rival. He launched at me with a new fervor and I reveled in it. Ever since I had allowed Pandimala into our fold as her human self, it seemed to become easier and easier to get under the Prime's plating.

While our blades met, I realized that, while what I spoke to the Prime was to irritate him, there was more truth behind that statement than even I realized. The Prime didn't understand who Pandimala was. To him, she was just another of the billions of humans that needed to be 'protected' from me and my Decepticons.

To those of us in the Decepticons, though, Pandimala was the special one in billions. She had her own beliefs, feelings, and motivations. Those all played a part in who she was along with her past. Even before the patch, my Decepticons had grown to understand the femme as a unique being. My Decepticons were not simply cogs in a machine. Each had their motivations that allowed them to serve me.

How the Prime could not see what my Decepticons already did, when he had more interactions with the species, I couldn't understand.

"Prime, I can't get to the monitor," I took a glance toward Prime's bot and noticed that Soundwave was indeed keeping the Autobot at bay.

Since the mech seemed to be almost bored with his fight, I figured now would be a good time to check the status of this battle. "Soundwave, report.-Lord Megatron"

"Autobots have numerous points of infiltration that I have detected. A number of the armory rooms have been attacked. Dreadwing has reported that the Autobot Ironhide has stolen the Urzichos Cannon. There are multiple points of contact with the enemy right now. Blitzwing has his servos full with the Autobots Springer and Bulkhead. The others are in similarly difficult battles. The best course of action is to make the Prime call a retreat before they can access more.-Soundwave"

So, it seemed like I needed to push Prime. So, I quickly increased the pressure of my advance. While that was not normally such a good idea in close quarters, I knew the Nemesis much better than the Prime, or any Autobot, could ever hope to. So, as the clicks moved by, I continued to force the Prime back.

After ten clicks, I wondered if Prime would ever retreat. It seemed, however, that my thoughts were just ahead of the Prime. "Autobots, fall back to base!"

"You got it O.P.," The one called Jazz responded before he started to make his retreat.

Soon, Soundwave continued to send me messages of multiple ground bridges being opened and, fifty nano-clicks later, the Autobots were all cleared from my ship. "All officers, report to the bridge immediately." I needed to know what damages were taken so we could recuperate. We were attacked in a moment of weakness. I would not allow this to happen again.

In the following clicks, my officers arrived on the bridge and started to give their reports. As I suspected, several items were now missing from our stores, items that we had spent time and resources collecting. The Autobots would pay for this. My officers also reported what they observed from the fighting Autobots. As expected, the Autobots still seemed to be fractured. They were easily distracted and it seemed like their confidence in their faction was waning.

"Our resources have been limited, but outside of the weapons and relics that the Autobots have taken, we can recover quickly from this," Shockwave reported to me as a summary.

So despite the suddenness of their assault, we have not suffered major setbacks. That was one positive out of this disaster. Of course, I couldn't allow myself to forget that there were some items that the Autobots took that we would not be able to recover. The Urzichos Cannon was one of those. I had it separated in its own room. A gift from my once-allies on Karn, before its core failed due to the idiots mining from the said core and the planet fell in on itself. Of course, Urzichos was created from the very material of that core. Practically indestructible. However, given that I had my cannon, I did not need to wear it and so I kept it on display, but safe.

It seemed like now those fragging Autobots stole what was mine.

The sound of the bridge door opening caused me to glance and see that one of the drones that were to be stationed outside the said door. 0RC44-RD, or Orchard as he had started to be called, looked slightly panicked as entered the room. "My Lord, I've been trying to contact Gratton and the others and I haven't been able to get a response. I don't know if something happened, or they just aren't answering their comms, or the signal's bad or,"

"Orchard enough," I spoke to get the drone to calm down. Of course, something told me that, while this particular drone did tend to rattle on at times, I could see that this was different. He was just trying to get his words out. It was Starscream, though, who spoke

"Where was Gratton stationed?"

Miko's 1st P.O.V.

This was great! So far, the raid on the 'Cons was a huge success. While none of the teams had been able to find Lizzie yet, the bots were bringing back a lot of energon and even some relics that the Decepticons had gotten to first. Ironhide was possessive of that new cannon to the point where he almost punched Springer for trying to hold it.

Now, with Chromia, Arcee, and Blaster back, we just had to wait for Ratchet to bridge back Pitch, Sentinel, and Flamewar. "Hey Prime, make sure you have a cell ready. We are bringing back a prisoner with us. The bot's unconscious for now so the sooner we get this Decepticon bound the better" Sentinel's voice came from the base's comm system as Ratchet typed in their coordinates.

A prisoner? Didn't think that idiot had it in him to take a bot alive Showed all that I knew. But, I was curious about what Decepticon they got. With so many up there now, it was pretty hard to guess just which one they were able to take. From what Paul told me about the 'Cons he knew about, many of them would be able to give us information about what they were up to.

"This is going to change things," Paul spoke from next to me.

While it was obvious that they hadn't been able to find Lizzie with this raid, having a prisoner would give us access to the information about where she was. Or if she was alright. If she was anything like Paul spoke on, then I did not doubt that she was still alive. But, what those 'Cons could be doing to her, I didn't want to know.

"Yeah, and maybe they can tell us what's going on with Lizzie."

"I hope so."

A heaviness seemed to settle around us as the last ground bridge opened. It was almost killing me to wait for them to walk through. Finally, after what seemed like forever, the first sound of pedesteps was heard. Then, weirdly, it sounded like they were dragging something. Just what sort of bot did they manage to get that they would have to drag them?

The first to appear was Flamewar and, while she seemed a little smug, I could also tell that she was nervous. Why I wasn't sure. But, with how she glanced over her shoulder, it had to do with whatever Decepticon they were able to grab. Finally, Sentinel and Pitch walked through, dragging a very large chassis by under its arms. It's helm reminded me of that wacko Blitzwing's helm but black with green stiped nodes on top. Her faceplate, cause now I could tell that it was a femme, was light gray, and her chassis was black with lime green stripes on it in different places. She had cannons coming out from behind her shoulders and it was easy to see she had to be some sort of tank.

Once the bridge was closed behind the three bots, Pitch and Sentinel threw the femme down in front of them. "So, who has the stasis cuffs?"

While Blaster moved to restrain the femme, and Springer and Bulkhead moved to move the femme to the cell that we had, Zarron asked the most important question out of all of this. "Who the frag is that?"

From the looks that all of the bots had, they looked like they didn't have a clue about her identity. While the others looked off toward where Bulk and Springer took the femme, I leaned closer to Paul. "So Paul, do you know who she is?"

I felt nervous when I noticed that the human god's eyes were wide and he looked confused. "Miko, I honestly have no idea who that is."

"But how is that possible? Aren't you like, their god?"

"I don't know Miko, and I do not know what this femme's involvement will bring going forward."

Paul: Authoress, who is this femme?

Authoress: *shrugs shoulders* I don't know. I wasn't the one that took her from the Nemesis.

Paul: *sighs* At least we will be able to interrogate her about Lizzie's condition and any other Decepticon plans.

Miko: *looking at the femme* Why do that 'Cons always get the bigger bots?

Authoress: *dirty thoughts* *smirks* Well Miko, it's because *muffled as Paul covers mouth*

AN: And here is the next chapter for you all! I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did!

So, we see the beginning of a plan to take Thrust out permanently. However, before that can be implemented, the ship comes under attack by the Autobots! While many fights are being held, I did end up focusing on two.

Firstly, we see Ironhide looking for a fight but, at first, he is unsuccessful. Then, he comes across a weapon that has him practically giddy. Of course, his joy in that is taken away by the arrival of Dreadwing. A couple of noteworthy things were mentioned here but I'm not going into them yet. You all can have fun with that! However, I will say that Dreadwing, being as new to the ship as he is, doesn't realize that Pandimala was being considered a hostage to keep the Autobots guessing about her condition.

Then, we move to Megatron against Optimus. Megatron seems to find it very easy to manipulate the Prime while also taking a closer look at how he and his Decepticons view their newest strategist. Very interesting that was. However, that bit at the end there was quite worrisome. I wonder where Gratton was stationed?...

Or not as we go to the Autobot view! Pandimala is with the Autobots! Oh, the fun that is eventually going to be unleashed...I can't wait! They have no idea what they have gotten themselves into. *evil laugh*

Well, that's all I am going to say on this for now. While you all imagine what is to come, here are the names of the upcoming chapters!

Chapter 37: Making a Connection Tunnel Vision

Chapter 38: Receiving an Outlet Triangulation

Chapter 39:... (of course you find out next time)

And that is all that this essential worker has for you for this story this solar! I hope you all enjoyed it. Drop a review if you would like and I hope you all enjoyed reading this! TTYL! *definitely on a sugar high*