To the guest-questioner: Human feet, obviously. Or if you want me to be 'correct': Whiskey about 3 meters taller than Ucon. (Whiskey=9m, Ucon=6m) And if I have to clarify, those are human meters...

Anyway, for your viewing pleasure, the CRC goes relic hunting.

Liliy had access to every room in the base. But she never liked violating the privacy of her 'boys'' quarters. That was their space. Yet there she was, standing outside the door to Pepper's room, transmitting the override code for it to open. She was only there because the others had expressed concern about Pepper's wellbeing. He had been locked in his room pretty much since she had returned from her stay on the Nemesis with Orion Pax. The only time he was seen was when he came out to get some energon. But he never said anything to anyone.

The door slid open and Liliy stepped into the room. It took a second for her optics to adjust to the dim lighting. The lights were off so the room was only illuminated by the glow of the five active monitors that dominated one wall. There was a berth on the other side of the room and a small table next to it that had several empty cubes stacked on top. The owner of the room, a mech with a ridiculously bright, neon yellow paint job, stood in front of the monitors, digits tapping away at the keys on the terminal, off in his own little world.

"Hey, Pepper," Liliy said, stepping farther into the room. "What are you doing in here? Nobody's seen you for a while expect when you come out to get a cube."

"Research." At least he acknowledged that she had spoken to him.

"Research?" She zipped up to his shoulder so she could get a better view of the monitors. Familiar glyphs scrolled across the main one. "Wait. Is that the Iacon database?"

"Yes, ma'am. After you downloaded it to our mainframe, I tried picking up where Orion left off. It has taken me awhile to figure it out but I finally finished decoding the next entry." He brought up the coordinates and a map on one of the side monitors. "So if you want to send someone to go get it, I'll continue working on the next one."

"Oh, lovely," she said, staring at the map. "The equator. Near a volcano. This should be fun. Send the coordinates to the Comm center. And feel free to ask for help if you need it, Pepper." She dropped back to the floor.

"I may consult Optimus later. Two helms would be better than one."

"Especially if Soundwave is working on decoding this as well," she added as she headed for the door.

Romeo, Delta, and Yankee came out of the ground bridge on the side of a volcano. Yankee immediately transformed and took to the air.

"Are you sure we're at the coordinates Pepper supplied to us?" asked Delta, looking around the mostly black landscape. Steam billowed from vents around the area and there was plant life growing at the edges of the obvious lava path. The terrain was so uneven they lost sight of Yankee.

"Yes, Delta." Romeo looked up from the scanner in his servo. "Do you really think Alfa would get them wrong?"

"Then where is the relic or whatever?" He gestured to their immediate surroundings which were nothing but volcanic rock.

Yankee came back and hovered over their helms. "Found it!" he called loud enough to be heard over the sound of his rotors. "The lava flow moved it down the slope."

"Tch. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to drive on this terrain," grumbled Romeo as he stowed the scanner in his subspace.

"You could just walk," Delta suggested, transforming into his alt. It was a hook and chain tow truck painted white with blue and yellow detailing. "Or get a taller alt."

"Hmh. If only you were a flatbed," Romeo shot back, crossing his arms.

"Ha. You only get a tow if you're broken." He raised and lowered the boom on his back making the chains rattle. "No free rides otherwise."

Romeo just glared at him under his mask.

{Are you guys coming or what?} Yankee asked thru the comm since he had already flown off again.

"Yeah, yeah," answered Romeo.

Delta spun his dual rear tires as he sped off in the direction that Yankee had gone. Romeo sighed and took off after them at a jog. The rocky terrain soon opened up to a flat lava flow. Romeo transformed then and raced to catch up with Delta. When they reached the spot where the relic container was, Yankee was already there waiting for them, arms crossed and his digits clicking on his plating. The grounders transformed and Delta went over to the almost spherical container. Kneeling next to it, he only had the lid open long enough to glance inside before he slammed it closed again.

"What is it?" asked Yankee with a curious tilt of his helm.

"Tox-En," hissed Delta, not looking up at them.

Romeo took a small step back in horrified disgust. "Tox-? Why in the Allspark would someone keep that?"

"What should we do with it?" asked Yankee. He waved at the container. "We can't take something like that back to base."

"I say we should destroy it, but we should confirm with the Madam first." Delta touched his comm. "Delta to Base. Is the Madam around?"

{I'm here, Delta. What do you need?} Liliy answered immediately.

He sat back on his heel struts. "We found the relic. We need to know what to do with it."

{What is it?}

"Tox-En."

The three flinched when Liliy suddenly and angrily started spouting curses in Lassic, the Laserblades' dialect of Cybertronian. Then: {Why the frag would they save something like that?}

"That's what I asked," replied Romeo.

{Destroy it. We don't need Megatron getting his grubby servos on it.}

"The container too?" asked Delta.

{Yes. It's been contaminated so we can't use it for anything.}

"We can toss the Tox-En into the volcano," offered Yankee. "Then use a grenade to destroy the container."

{Whatever works for you, as long as you get rid of all traces. Try your best not to expose yourselves to it. But I want all three of you to report to the medbay once you return just to be safe.}

"Yes, ma'am."

"Roger that."

"We'll be careful."

{You better be. Liliy out.} Comm was terminated.

"So how are we going to do this?" asked Yankee.

"Weeelll… Only one of us can fly so…" Romeo hedged.

"Seriously, Rom'?" The copterbot turned to the dark red mech with his servos on his hips.

"Yeah, Yank'. Just fly up to the top of the volcano," he gestured to the mountain as if he was tossing something at it, "and throw it in. Easy peasy."

"Um. Not so much," interrupted Delta. He was still kneeling next to the container, trying to move it.

"Huh? Why?" asked Romeo.

Delta looked up at them. "The container is stuck in the lava rock."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Does this mean we have to call for a miner?" Yankee wanted to know as his servo started to move to his comm.

Delta shook his helm. "I think I might have a little something." He pulled a small servo-held drill from his subspace.

"Is that one of those things from the Rescue Bots?" Yankee asked, stepping closer so he could get a better look.

"Yep." Delta raised the tool. "Power up and Energize!" A bolt of energy surged thru his arm to power up the drill.

Romeo facepalmed. "Oh, Primus, you sound ridiculous."

"Oh, I know. But that's how it works. Embarrassing you is just an added bonus," Delta said with a grin.

"Speaking of Rescue Bots…" Yankee spoke as Delta used the drill to chip away the rock around the container. "Have you gone to meet Boulder yet?"

The drill slipped momentarily, scraping against the side of the container. "I haven't had time."

"Are you sure that is the problem?" asked Romeo.

Delta paused, sitting back with the drill in his lap. "I guess it's because he's an Autobot and we used to be Decepticons."

"Yeah. But wasn't he in stasis for most of the war? He probably doesn't care about that kind of thing, ya know?"

"You're probably right." Delta applied the drill again, working around the container until it moved.

"Oh, you got it free," observed Yankee.

"Great. You two can take it up there. I'll just wait here for you," commented Romeo.

"That would be fine," Yankee said as he started back up the slope on ped. "Except you're the only one with the grenades."

"How about a ped race?" Delta asked, latching the container to his back with his tow cable and chains. "Last one to the top takes the others' scrub duties. One rule: no Red En."

"Hoho. You're on, Delta!" Romeo exclaimed as he ran past the tow truck.

However, they were both suddenly blasted backward by a burst of air from Yankee's rotors.

"Yankee! What in the Pit?!" yelled Romeo, getting back to his peds.

"Delta said the only rule was we couldn't use Red En," explained Yankee with a smirk.

"Oh, you son of a-! Just you wait!"

Delta laughed as he watched Romeo chase after Yankee. He broke into a jog, following them as they bickered back and forth while trying to trip each other up. It wasn't until they were almost to the top that Delta joined the fun.

Romeo was in front now with Yankee following and yelling threats for some trick Romeo had pulled. Delta had taken a slight detour but thanks to their bickering slowing them down, he had been able to keep up and was now directly in line with them. He pulled out the spare cable he carried just in case and formed a lasso loop.

Romeo yelled as he was suddenly jerked backwards, the cable wrapped around his shoulders. He collided with Yankee who had just managed to gain some ground. They both tumbled over and rolled a couple of times before they slammed into a boulder. Delta smirked as he sprinted the last few yards to the top. As he stood there, looking over the crater, servos grabbed his peds.

"Delta!" Yankee snarled, pulling himself up onto the rocky edge.

"You fragging bastard!" Romeo growled beside him. "That hurt!"

"H-hey!" Delta replied sheepishly as they got to their peds on either side of him. Both of them radiated 'murder', so he tried to lighten the mood. "You both made it here at the same time, so who's gonna get the scrub duties?"

They both just glared at him and then together shoved him back down the side of the volcano after they relieved him of the container.

"Looks like you're getting them, Delta," called Romeo after him.

"Yeah. Thanks a lot, Delta," Yankee called as well.

Delta sat up and rubbed his helm. "Hhh. I should've seen that coming," he muttered to himself. He got to his peds and climbed back up to help the other two dispose of the Tox-En and the container.

After they ground bridged back, Liliy met them in the receiving room.

She looked them up and down with a raised optic ridge. "Why does it look like the three of you got in a fight?"

"It was just a friendly ped race," Romeo explained with a shrug.

"Is that it? I guess someone has extra scrub duties then?"

Romeo and Yankee looked at Delta who was the least dented of the three. He sighed.

"I do." Grumbling, he added, "Even though I was the one who actually finished first."

"Really?" she asked. "And who is responsible for Yankee's bent rotors?"

"Romeo when he knocked him over."

"You mean when you yanked him off his peds with your tow cable and used him to bowl me over?" Yankee countered.

"I don't know if you noticed but I dislocated a wheel in that fall." Romeo twisted his left leg to show them that the wheel there was no longer sitting straight.

"Alright, alright. You win," Delta admitted in defeat, raising his servos in surrender. "I was the one who suggested the race anyway. I will accept my defeat."

"Great!" Romeo threw his arm around Delta's shoulders. "Then let's go get a drink!"

"Medbay first, boys," Liliy reminded them as they were heading for the main hall.

"Ah… yes, ma'am!"

"You were right, Madam," commented Echo. Liliy looked up at him from where she was sitting on the Comm center's main console. "We kept track of the coordinates like you suggested and the Decepticons did show up. But not until about 20 hours after we got there."

Liliy watched the Decepticon signals move around on the monitor. "So Soundwave is working on decoding the database too." She jumped off the console and headed for the door. "I'll let Pepper know."

Coming out of the Comm center, Liliy ran into Whiskey and the Miner Brothers entering the hall from the receiving room. With them was another miner in Decepticon purple.

"And who is this?" Liliy asked, eyeing the femme.

Mike gently caught the femme's arm and lifted her servo. "This is the lovely Viniq."

Obviously disturbed, the femme pulled her arm out of Mike's grasp. Shaking his helm, Nova grabbed his brother by the panels that jet out from his back and dragged him off while he complained.

Liliy watched them go and then turned to Whiskey, inquiring, "Viniq?"

"This is VQ-03," Whiskey clarified. "The only conscious member of the VQ miner squad. They were trapped by a cave-in. DC-09 left them in my care."

"Ah! Thank you for reminding me. I need to go do that right now. But the rest of VQ is…?"

"Medbay for mostly minor injuries."

"Then take her there and let Julian talk with her, explain things. She is still laid up and is quite bored. And that leaves you free to go if needed." She looked up at VQ-03 with a smile. "We will respect your decision whatever it may be." She turned and headed for the receiving room.

VQ-03 watched the little femme and asked, "Who was that?"

"That was our leader. The Madam of the Cybertronian Rebel Corps."

She looked up at him, surprised. "That was your leader? But she's so small."

Whiskey chuckled. "Don't let her size fool you. She is capable of taking down mechs bigger than Megatron in an astroklik. But that's not why we follow her." He turned and headed for the medbay.

She hurried to keep up with his longer strides. "Why do you follow her?"

He stopped suddenly. Pushing up his mask, he regarded her with thoughtful optics. "Because she looked at us and saw more than just drones. She saw us as individuals. Sparks, worth saving."

Liliy bridged over to the Autobot base and found everyone in the main room.

"Optimus," she said, climbing the stairs to the top tier. "I need to talk to you. Actually, I would like all of your Autobots to listen."

"What is it, Liliy?" Optimus asked as the other Autobots gathered around to listen.

"How do I say this? I need you to start pulling your punches."

"To do what now?" repeated Arcee.

"To start pulling your punches. You see, Ucon, my spy on the Nemesis, has been transferred to the combat units and sooner or later his squad is going to run into one of you and I don't want him to die."

"Why don't you just pull him out?" Bulkhead asked.

"He doesn't want to leave. Unlike some people he actually cares about what happens to the vehicons. I do believe you ran into him, Optimus, when you went looking for Megatron on the Nemesis before that thing with Unicron."

"The eradicon who told his squad not to fight me. I remember."

"Also my request is not just for Ucon's safety but the safety of whoever attacks him as well."

"What do you mean?"

"Whiskey, our mech who can turn invisible, is his sparkmate. He follows Ucon around and will not hesitate to defend him. Violently if necessary."

"Whiskey? The gold and brown flyer?" chirped Bumblebee.

"I mean he might hold back because you're my friends but don't hang your hopes on that."

"So we just have to pull our punches with the eradicons," observed Arcee.

"I was hoping that you try your best to stop killing vehicons all together."

"So they can come back and fight us again?" Ratchet grumbled. "Aren't you asking a bit much, Liliy?"

"I'm just asking you to disable them without killing them. If you can do that… Please promise me you'll at least try."

Optimus sighed. "Liliy, we have been fighting this war for a very long time. To change how we fight now-"

"Don't give me that scrap, Optimus!" Liliy snapped. "How about I put it this way: Every spark you extinguish puts our race one step closer to extinction."

"But the vehicons are just-" started Arcee.

"The vehicons may all look alike but they have sparks just like the rest of us. And let me remind you that there are more of them than you guys, the Decepticon officers, and all my 'boys' combined. Overwhelming us all with sheer numbers and ending this war wouldn't be too hard for them."

"Then why haven't they?"

"Because they don't believe they can. If you start thinking of them as individuals, maybe my request won't be so hard."

"But they are trying to kill us."

"So are the officers and yet…"

"Very well, Liliy," Optimus said finally. "We promise to try and hold back while fighting."

Liliy bowed with her servo over her spark. "Thank you, Optimus. That is all I came to ask for."

"Madam!" Pepper called excitedly as he entered the rec room. "I finished the next one. It's in Antarctica so I would be the best mech to go get it."

"But isn't Antarctica really cold?" Indy leaned over and whispered to his twin.

"What are you saying? Pepper is a snow plow," Golf whispered back. "He'll be in his element."

"Oh, right. I forgot that mech actually likes the cold."

"Ok, I understand why Hirry is here but why did you bring me along?" asked Oscar with a shiver as the group trudged across the icy landscape. It wasn't snowing but there was a frigid wind blowing around.

"In case we need a flier," Pepper informed him as he walked at the front. "Yankee was busy so we brought you."

"There are other fliers," grumbled Oscar.

"Hover flight is best for these types of missions," Hirry said, "so our options were limited."

"Whatever. Let's just hurry and find the relic so we can go home where it's warm."

They finally made it to the coordinates only to find a large hole in the ice cliff where the relic should have been and there were four red flags planted in front of the hole.

"Are you kidding?" groaned Oscar, his shoulders drooping.

"The humans beat us to it, huh," mused Pepper. "I hope it wasn't anything dangerous."

"We better call the Madam." Hirry reached for her comm. She contacted Liliy and explained the situation.

{I understand. There appears to be a human research facility a few kilks north of your position. I'll call ahead to get them to evacuate and then meet you there. Alright?}

"Roger that."

The trio was just coming up over the ridge overlooking the facility when three large helicopters took off. Down below, a ground bridge opened at the edge of the facility grounds and Liliy appeared.

"Race you!" challenged Hirry as she took two long strides down the slope before transforming into her alt.

Pepper quickly followed, leaping down the slope and transforming as he hit the flat ice at the bottom. He kept his plow blade lifted as he sped across the white ground. In normal conditions, Hirry's smaller alt, a Hummer, would have easily outpaced a snow plow, but even with her preparations for such icy conditions, she was struggling to keep up with the heavier mech whose alt was made for snow.

However, it was Oscar who won the race. He even let the grounders have a huge head start before he leapt into the air and transformed. He crossed the space in half the time they did, landing on his peds next to Liliy just before the other two reached her.

"Well then, shall we find the relic?" asked Liliy.

It wasn't too hard to find. The humans were keeping it in one of the warehouses. And it was still encased in ice. A few heavy strikes from Pepper and the ice broke.

"It looks like armor," said Pepper as he picked up the odd shaped metal disk.

"Armor?" repeated Liliy from her place on Hirry's shoulder.

"I think so. Bravo should know for sure though."

"Then let's take it back to base. It's too cold here." Liliy shivered.

"Thank Primus!" Oscar muttered.

After they brought the relic back, they had Bravo take a look at it. He confirmed it was armor, very old armor made by the Primes. He didn't have time to run tests on it though so they decided to lock it away in the vault with the rest of the relics they had for the time being.

Oscar was his way to do just that when Starscream came up to him in the hallway.

"Oh, hello. What have you got there?" asked the seeker as he eyed the disk in Oscar's servos.

"One of the relics we've been collecting," Oscar explained.

That perked his interest. "Relics, hm? That looks like armor…" His optics gleamed. "...Of Decepticon origin."

"I don't think so. Bravo said this armor was probably made by one of the Thirteen. Most likely Solus Prime."

"So it should be pretty good then?"

"We haven't tested it yet but it's supposed to be impervious to all attacks and enhances the user's strength."

"Is that so?" he purred as he dropped back a couple steps so he was behind Oscar.

Then Starscream stabbed him in the back. A quick, sharp jab, just like how he killed Cliffjumper, but right between the copterbot's rotor blades and slightly to the right of the spinal strut so he just missed the spark chamber. Shocked, Oscar dropped the relic as he collapsed to the floor.

"Well, at least I let you live," said Starscream as he picked up the relic. "Think of it as thanks for repairing me."

There were pedfalls coming in their direction. Starscream quickly slipped around the nearest corner, the entrance way to the vault, and activated the armor. Tango came down the hallway and spotted Oscar on the floor. He ran to him, alarmed by the energon seeping out of the hole in his back.

"Oscar!" Tango knelt beside him and opened a comm. "Medical emergency to the vault! Oscar's been stabbed!"

{Stabbed? By who?} asked Echo.

Starscream stepped out behind him. He grabbed Tango by a doorwing and lifted him off his peds. Tango cried out in pain as the sensitive joint was strained, all his weight hanging from it. Even through the pain, he heard his assailant laugh and recognized him.

"S-Starscream!"

Tango barely got the name out before Starscream, wearing the Apex Armor, threw him hard against the wall, wrenching the doorwing in the process. The orange mech slumped to the floor, unconscious.

Alfa appeared at the end of the hallway, blasters ready. He opened fire. Starscream laughed again as the bolts simply burst harmlessly on the armor and didn't do any damage. He charged down the hallway toward Alfa. Deactivating his blasters, Alfa backed into the main hall as Starscream approached, his visor flickering to red. Starscream grabbed for him but he quickly sidestepped and caught the seeker's arm. Starscream's world blurred and then he found himself on his back, slightly dazed from the impact.

"You're going to pay for that," he growled as he climbed to his peds.

In the armor, Starscream was almost as tall as Alfa, which meant he was also taller than Megatron at this point. The armor also made him bulkier than the dark grey mech who was watching him warily while taking defensive stance.

"Alfa, do you need help?" Mike called from the direction of the receiving room.

"What should we do?" asked his brother.

"Nova, open a bridge!" ordered Alfa, keeping his optics on Starscream.

"To where?" The miner sounded worried.

Alfa dodged a strike from Starscream. "Somewhere he won't be a bother."

"Got it!" Nova disappeared into the receiving room but Mike stayed in the doorway to watch.

"Oh? You think you can get me to leave?" purred Starscream.

"Alfa, Nova has a location set!" Mike called.

"Redirect it to my receiver," Alfa told him.

"Eh? But-"

"Now!"

"Redirecting..."

Alfa dropped a small, round device on the floor between him and Starscream.

The seeker looked down at the device and then back up at Alfa with a raised optic ridge. "What are you planning?"

His answer was a ground bridge opening beneath their peds. Starscream found himself in freefall over the Pacific Ocean. Alfa fell with him but once he was clear of the portal, he dove after the device. Once his servo closed around it, he transformed. Starscream shrieked as the huge but flat stealth plane streaked past him back toward the upper atmosphere and set him spinning. He flailed about but couldn't come out of the spiral in time.

The armor absorbed most of the impact when he hit the water. He struggled a bit as he sank but he was too heavy. He kept sinking until there was no more light and the pressure would have no doubt crushed his frame if he didn't have the armor. Finally he hit the bottom.

Starscream got his peds. "I'm going to kill those Neutrals for this." And started walking.

Liliy was beyond pissed when she heard about what happened. Megatron attacking the twins was one thing. They were his enemies in the way of his goal. He had never had any contact with them before. Sure, Liliy was angry about it but it wasn't like they never got a chance to fight back. They gave him as much trouble as he gave them.

But Starscream on the other hand… They had helped Starscream, saved him from the pathetic state he was in. They fixed his leg, replaced his t-cog, and shared their energon with him. The only positive was that his t-cog was still disabled. But the fact that he stole the Apex Armor… that he nearly took the doorwing off a mech who had befriended him… that he stabbed one of her medics in the back…

"The Decepticons came sooner this time," Lima commented. "It's a good thing you held that evacuation order for the humans. The Cons destroyed their base looking for the relic."

Liliy only hmed in response. She was distracted by the gray Decepticon signal on one of the side monitors that was slowly making its way across the ocean floor. Suddenly, she transformed the staff out of her arm. Twirling it once, she slammed the end down on the console.

Next they met, Starscream was going to pay dearly for what he did.

To be continued...