Chapter Nineteen: Breach

WARNING: Graphic depiction of violence in this chapter.


Santos stared at the clipboard in distaste. One hour and sixteen minutes. That was how long it took the red team to beat them. Again. And while he was satisfied that they had held out that long, there was nothing more frustrating than seeing his team lose time and again, even in a simulated battle.

At least Rick was less stubborn this time and actually helped plan out the defenses. He hated to admit it, but the SOED commander was half the reason why they lasted that long. His strategic skills were impressive, and not even Santos could hope to think of half the things that Rick always thought of. True, he had been hunting Transformers for several years now, so he knew how they think and move. But most of the engagements were against no less than three or four targets. The TRF, unfortunately, were not accustomed to fighting against a much larger force, unlike N.E.S.T., though they were trained for such scenarios

Then again, this was the reason for the war games. They were losing, yes, but Santos and his team were slowly getting the hang of it, familiarizing themselves with how the Autobots operate as a cohesive unit. It would not be long until they finally got their first win.

He glanced at Rick sitting opposite the table, reviewing the post-exercise assessment. Around them, lounging and resting in couches, were the rest of the team who had participated in the war game today. Both sides still mostly kept to each other, but this was the first time they could gather together in an enclosed space without the room exploding like a tactical nuke.

Santos could not blame his team, of course. Unlike the SOED whose roots could be traced back to the defunct N.E.S.T, the TRF was formed by soldiers who had lost their families at the hands of the Transformers. They hated them. And now they had to join forces with people who hailed them as heroes. Naturally, two opposing viewpoints would end up clashing.

Still, everyone was professional, and they knew better than to let their temper get in the way of saving the world. Though tensions remained high, the result of their latest exercise had proven that they could work together as a team, which was the only important thing in this alliance.

"I think we need to work more on our timing," Rick suddenly said, bringing Santos out of his musings. His counterpart was tapping the assessment report. "Some of the squads were out of sync."

Santos nodded in agreement. Things had gone so well in the first forty-five minutes, and they managed to keep casualties to a minimum even after the Autobots tried a head-on assault. But it was when the bots retreated to regroup and the blue team rushed after them that the plan collapsed. Santos could attribute much of it to the hostility between the two sides, something that he knew should be addressed soon.

"Maybe we could mix them up? Your men have more experience when it comes to group engagements, unlike the TRF." It was a solid suggestion, but one Santos never thought he would say. He was practically admitting that SOED was better than them.

Rick stared at him squarely in the face. "You realize what you're saying, right?"

Santos snorted. "Of course. But I'm getting tired of getting our asses kicked. Aren't you?"

For the first time, Santos saw Rick's mouth curled into a tiny smile. "I won't say I'm not."

He grinned at that as Rick looked down again. It didn't lessen his dislike of him, but it did ease his mind. Rick may be an asshole, but he was a competitive asshole, and he knew that their constant losses would lower the morale of their men. He, like Santos, could not let that happen.

They lapsed into silence, occasionally giving each other suggestions and advice. Conversations filled the room, but Santos tuned them out, even declining when some of his friends invited him for lunch. He was not hungry yet, and he wanted to finish this up before he could enjoy his meal; it was irritating to eat while worrying about the workload he had left behind, even more so if he decided to do it in the mess hall.

The troopers gradually filed out of the room in twos and threes until Santos was finally met with blessed silence. Smiling to himself in relief, Santos relaxed his muscles and took a sip from his coffee. He scribbled in his blue notepad, noting the mistakes and blunders the squads made earlier. Many of it could have been avoided easily, and he could not help but grimace at their recent performance. He knew they were on unfamiliar territory, but still…

The scraping of a chair across the floor drew his attention. He started, realizing quickly that one person had remained behind to work on the strategies.

Rick, noticing his surprised expression, raised an eyebrow. "What?"

Santos shrugged. "Nothing. I thought I was alone." He returned his attention to his notepad.

The silence dragged on once more, and the only sounds were the constant scribbling of pens on their respective notepads. Rick had relocated somewhere to the left, as far away from Santos as possible. Santos didn't make any comment on that; it was obvious that Rick hated him for some reason, and he was only treating him civilly because of the nature of their work.

Soon Santos was finished with reviewing the report. He looked over his notes again, searching for any details he had forgotten to add. Pleased that he managed to write them all down, he closed his notepad and stretched his cramped legs, wincing. He had been sitting here since morning!

He glanced at the clock. By now the mess hall would be nearly empty as everyone finished their lunch. He would just eat in his room and take a nap afterwards. God knew he needed all the sleep he could get.

As he was about to stand up, Rick spoke. "Why do you hate them?"

Santos froze half-way, blinking at the question. Not this again, he thought sourly. He sighed and sat down back on the couch, mentally preparing himself for another heated discussion. "I thought I made that obvious," he said, staring at Rick. He grew more annoyed when he saw the commander was not even looking at him. "My family was killed in Chicago."

"You mean the Decepticons killed them."

"Does it really matter who did it?" Santos's voice rose a little. He knew that another argument would get him another reprimanding, but he could not help himself. "They brought their war to our world. They are all the same!"

For a moment, there was another silence. Santos crossed his arms and scowled at the floor, waiting for Rick's rebuttal. What would the asshole say next? That the Autobots were heroes? That they had lost everything too? He had heard it all, and even though he was willing to work with them now for the sake of the world, he could not just let go of his hatred that easily. He could not just forget what had happened to his wife and daughter.

"My brother went missing a few days after the government broke the alliance. He was part of the team that was sent with the Autobots to help them settle into their new base."

The words were spoken so softly that Santos almost failed to hear it. When he looked up, Rick was staring at him intensely with hooded eyes. Rick continued, "We never found his body. But when some of us investigated, the bots were gone and the base had signs of a fight. The team who were with them was nowhere to be found.

"You think it's us?" Santos's hands bunched into fists. He knew what Rick was getting at.

"You hate them," Rick said firmly.

"TRF was not formed yet. Not then."

"Does it matter if it was?"

Santos opened his mouth to spew a retort, but none came out. He clamped it shut. Rick got him good there, throwing his own words back at him, and he could not think of a proper comeback. "It… That was different," he muttered, half-heartedly. It was a poor response in an attempt to defend himself.

Disappointment flashed across Rick's face. He shook his head. "You know the difference between you and me? I know who I should ride with, and who I should shoot." With that, he gathered his own notes in one neat stack then stood up.

The lights flickered momentarily. Then like a fading heartbeat, they finally gave out, activating the emergency lights and bathing the room in a white glow. Despite himself, Santos glanced at Rick with a frown. "Power outage?" But as soon as he said it, something nagged at his mind. The base was well-maintained, built to accommodate extraterrestrial, mechanical beings. A power failure seemed implausible.

The look of concern on Rick's face only strengthened that sense of wrongness. "The generators are checked every day," he said, his mouth pressed in a thin line as he placed his notes back on the table. He hurried to a nearby wall-mounted phone and grabbed the receiver. A second later, his expression morphed into alarm. "The line's dead."

Santos shot to his feet and went to grab his comm earpiece from his bag. All TRF personnel were required to have them near all the time for this kind of situation, especially in a base so large it was like a town. "Santos to all squadron leaders, do you read me?"

There was no answer.

"Santos to all squadron leaders, do you read me?" His voice was now tinged with urgency as the feeling of dread rose within him. Two more times he tried hailing his team, and two more times he was only met with dreadful silence.

The sound of rushing footsteps outside the room sent relief coursing through Santos. The door opened and Dennis's blond head poked in. "I take it you guys tried to contact us?" he asked with a sigh.

"Thrice!" Santos said. "What the hell happened?"

Dennis shrugged. "Beats me. I was in the mess hall when everything went dark. Couldn't raise the other levels, so I searched for you." His gaze darted toward Rick then back to Santos. "The boys are in the mess hall. Some of us are going to use the emergency elevator to get into the third level. Last we heard, Colonel Lennox and the base commander are in the command center. They might have an idea what's up."

Santos nodded. "Tell the team to gear up. If this is an attack, I want everyone prepared and ready. I'll come with you to the CC. Where are the Bots right now?"

"Assembling at the Vehicle Bay. Hound thought the same thing as you did, so he immediately gathered everyone."

"Their communications are working?"

Dennis shook his head, and Santos could see the worry in his eyes. "That's the thing. They can't contact each other too."

…Shit. Santos had hoped that it was not the case, but the clues were enough to give him an idea of what really happened. The sense of dread returned. And judging by the tension in Rick's shoulders, Santos knew that he could feel it too.

"This is bad. We're—"

Beneath their feet, the floor shook violently.


Lennox rubbed his face in frustration. It had been five minutes since the power went out, and they still did not know what had caused it. Worse, communication lines were down, so they had to rely on messengers to contact those from the lower levels.

He did not want to think much of it; outages were quite common in military installations who were receiving power from civilian grids. But that was the problem; this facility was using its own generators to supply electricity throughout the base. There should be no reason for it to suffer from an outage.

"Don't you guys have backup generators?" he demanded at nobody in particular, reining in his impatience but failing miserably. Five minutes was a long time to be essentially blind and deaf, especially for a base that held dangerous alien artifacts.

Standing by a computer console nearby, Ericson responded with a grimace. "We just got this base six months ago, so everything isn't fully set up yet."

"It should have been one of the first things you set up," Lennox grumbled. He remembered how, in the last N.E.S.T. headquarters he had managed, all the generators were already set up two weeks before the team transferred. And that tradition carried on when he took over the TRF. One of the worst situations a military installation could suffer from was the lack of electricity… and communications.

"What about short-wave radios?" Lennox paced around, hands on his hips. He didn't like this. It reeked of deliberate sabotage. "Please tell me you have those."

"Of course." Ericson looked indignant despite his calm expression. "We use it for emergencies. I'll have someone get them from the storage."

"Get to it quickly." Lennox knew they had storage rooms in each level, so it shouldn't take long to get the radios. Nevertheless, he wanted to emphasize the urgency in procuring them.

While Ericson grabbed the nearest personnel to relay his order, Lennox sighed and surveyed the command room. With the power gone, the monitors and screens were blank. Even the radars were dark, leaving Lennox uneasy. The two dozen or so personnel who were supposed to be manning the communications array had nothing to do but wait for the power to return. He could feel the anxiety emanating from them, the feeling of powerlessness where they could only stand and wait for something to happen.

Lennox finally breathed a sigh of relief when the soldier whom Ericson had ordered to get the radios finally returned with a duffel bag, which he hurriedly placed on the floor and unzipped. Inside were at least three dozen walkie-talkies, all in pristine condition. It was obvious that they had not been used before. He immediately snatched one and tested it.

Nothing. There was no sound, not even static.

Lennox's stomach twisted into knots. He would have gone for his cell phone just to make sure it wasn't some screw up with the base's antennas, but the logical part of him knew that every signal was most likely jammed at this point. He turned to Ericson, who bore the same dumbfounded expression as he did, gripping the table next to him. But it only lasted a moment and the captain's face hardened.

"Run as fast as you can to the lower levels," Ericson told the same soldier with a sharp edge to his voice. "Tell everyone you see to get every weapon they can from the armory and assemble at the first level. Then alert the tank and raptor squadrons."

"I'll head down too." Lennox checked his handgun. He wished he had something with a bit more firepower, but he couldn't just tote an assault rifle everywhere he went. "I'll send someone to keep you posted until power and communications are back. Once you get the comms working, send a message to Fowler and alert the F.E. Warren. Tell them to send any help they can."

He had not gone more than a few steps toward the doors when a tremor ran through the entire command center, accompanied by a muffled explosion. Lennox froze for a moment, then jolted when another explosion sounded.

"Go! Go!" he shouted to the stunned soldier. The man was young, probably in his early twenties, and looked like he was ready to piss on the spot. But he burst to his feet and disappeared out of sight.

Lennox turned to Ericson, whose face had grown deathly pale. "Lock the doors and barricade yourselves."

Then he was outside the command center, telling the six guards posted there to be vigilant. The hall was not built for Transformers, thankfully, but that didn't ease his worry. Already he could hear loud explosions going off deep below him, suppressed by the thick floors. Whatever was happening down there sounded pretty bad.

He just hoped that by the time he reached the first level, it was not yet too late.

###

It was funny how everything went south in just a matter of minutes.

As soon as the explosions and gunfire started, Santos and the others didn't waste any more time. While he and Rick rushed to the armory, he had Dennis go for the vehicle bay. Even if they had been caught off-guard by a sudden attack, the Bots should be able to provide enough distraction for the Sentinels and tanks to mobilize—if they hadn't already.

At the end of the hallway, beams of light nearly blinded them. Santos and Rick halted, and when their eyes adjusted, they were greeted by a platoon of mixed SOED and TRF troopers. They were already equipped with grenade launchers and Javelins. "Where are the others?" Santos asked Michaels, one of his lieutenants.

"They are forming a defensive line with the Bots at the north wing," he said in a rush, handing Santos an M4 with a launcher and a belt of magazines and grenades. Next to him, another soldier gave the same equipment to Rick. "Main gate's breach, sir. Cons blew a hole the size of the moon. We came here as fast as we could to pick you both up."

Santos swore, as did Rick. "How many hostiles?"

"Thirty, maybe forty." Michaels shook his head. "Sorry, sir. We didn't get a proper look because they used smoke. But the army was big." He said that last part with a dry swallow.

A big army. Santos's heart pounded upon hearing that. For a brief moment, the memory of a ruined city flashed in his mind. Then he drove that scene into the darkest corner, pushing it away for the present.

He gripped his assault rifle tightly and addressed the entire team. "All right. You guys are with us. We'll support the defenders at the central atrium and try to assess the situation. We don't have any comms, so stay sharp all the time."

"Yes, sir!"

The mountain base was built like a fat cone, rising on three levels, with the lowest level being the widest. The hangar, armory, vehicle bay, the Spark Vault, the training area, and the living quarters were all in the first level, all divided into wings, each defended by a single gate.

The second level contained the engineering and research wings, the infirmary and the vault containing the relics. And should the enemy overrun the first level, they could hole up there and defend the only tunnel leading to it.

The third level contained the offices and command center. Two elevators connected the first and second levels to it, with a third one that ran on its own backup generator, reserved only for emergencies.

Santos and his team had just passed that elevator when it opened and out stepped Lennox and another soldier, holding onto their guns like a lifeline. Upon seeing them stopping in front of them, their tense muscles relaxed, but only a little. "What's the situation?" Lennox immediately asked.

"Main gate's breached," Santos answered while motioning for a trooper to give the colonel additional weapons. Lennox accepted it with a grim nod. "We need our power and communications back online."

Lennox shook his head. "Generators are busted, I checked with the maintenance crew. The Cons somehow short-circuited the power lines. But they are working on rerouting it directly to the command room."

Santos growled in frustration. "We're still going to follow the defense plan, right?"

The day after the TRF's arrival, he, Lennox, and Ericson, along with Hound and Prowl, had devised a plan should the base come under attack. It had taken them hours and a lengthy discussion, but they eventually agreed on a solid strategy that would allow them to hold out against a larger force with minimal casualties.

But Lennox's expression told a slightly different story. "We will, but we shouldn't expect reinforcements any time soon." Turning to the soldier he had brought with him, he said, "Go to the quarters and tell Izzabella and Jimmy to stay there. If the defense line is broken—you'll know it because there'll be a lot of gunfire in the hallways—escort them to the escape tunnels, go to the nearest city, and call for help. Got it?"

The soldier nodded.

"Good. Now go."

A holdout then, Santos thought grimly as they resumed their sprint.. He had been in plenty of holdouts before, but not in a situation like this. And definitely not against a whole army of Decepticons.

Near the north wing, Longarm greeted them with an urgent wave of his hand. "The Knights are guarding the relics," he told Lennox when they approached. Around them, a company was setting up defenses in the hallway leading to the east and west wings. Four Sentinels stood nearby, their tracing lasers bright red in the semi-darkness of the hallway. "Canopy and the little ones are with Izzy and Jimmy."

"Who's guarding the Spark Vault?" Lennox grabbed a cluster of grenades from a crate.

"Nobody. We concentrated the defenses here and around the relics."

The explosions were starting to get louder and increase in frequency, so they soon got moving again. Rick stayed to assist Longarm's unit, and Santos silently wished him luck; they may hate each other's guts, but they were still fighting for the same team. They were in this together.

It was a chaotic mess in the north wing when they finally arrived. A line of tanks, Sentinels, Autobots and human soldiers fired behind rows of thick barricades. Beyond them, smoke obscured the field. And yet Santos could see several dead Cons scattered in smoking heaps across the area. But more swarmed by the front gate, trading gunfire with the defenders.

Then there was a commotion, and a mass of dark shapes churned within the smoke until they broke into a charge. Somewhere behind Santos, Hound matched the roar of his gatling gun.

"Come and get some!"

The initial wave was met with a hail of bullets and rockets. All six of them went down quickly, the lithe and fragile frames pierced by sabot rounds and depleted uranium shells. They were foot soldiers, Santos noted. Nothing more than cannon fodder for the ones behind them.

The second wave came next, a much larger force, a dozen strong. They were taller and heavily armored. Lasers and plasma bolts burst from their massive weapons, vaporizing everything they made contact with. A squadron was wiped out on Santos's left, leaving nothing but bones. Three of the Sentinels went down from a volley of rockets, and several of their tanks and light vehicles erupted into flames.

Still the Decepticons fell. Two were shredded by Hound's gatling gun, four more blown away by synchronized shots from Cliffjumper, Trailbreaker, and a team of tanks. The rest managed to get near enough to swing their swords and axes. Lennox and his team scattered while the few snipers among their ranks disabled the Cons' eyes. Another strike team closed in to plant bombs at the mechs' feet, retreating as the explosives brought down the bastards. A group of Sentinels showered them with rounds, and they went still.

Santos tried to keep track of the casualties. Eighteen Decepticons dead, but there were more past the smoke. He could hear them growling like feral beasts. However, the defenders had suffered a lot worse. At least fifty lay dead, including Michaels, and more had been outright reduced to atoms. Twice that were wounded in various capacities. Half of their tank support was now burning husks of metal, and even the Autobots had acquired injuries. Trailbreaker was limping from a shot to his right leg; energon oozed from the hole, which he sprayed with a sealer.

They would not hold much longer.

Santos searched for Lennox and found him in the far left, barking orders. He sprinted toward him, his head low to avoid the shrapnels and bursts of plasma flying everywhere.

"Lennox, we need to retreat! We can't hold much longer!" he shouted over the gunfire despite Lennox standing less than ten feet away. Thankfully, the colonel heard him. He glanced around, saw the situation, and clenched his teeth.

"Fall back to the next section!" Lennox took potshots at the Decepticons. Santos stood next to him as they began to retreat, the remaining soldiers rushing past them as fast as they could despite their grave injuries. The Autobots laid down covering fire with what was left of the Sentinels and the tanks as the Cons surged forward once more.

Slowly they gave ground. Santos was dimly aware of the lights blossoming back into the base, and his hope soared. The power is back on! In front of them, the massive steel doors that barred the way to the sections beyond hummed. Cliffjumper was already next to the emergency shutdown button, waving one arm while the other shot at the approaching Cons.

"Go, go!"

The humans were the first to enter, followed by three tanks; all the rest had been obliterated, while the Sentinels were barely standing. Hound was last, his gatling soon overheating at the sheer amount of Cons barreling toward them. A shot went straight for him, and he threw his weapon instinctively. It was cut in half. He swore and drew a shotgun.

A Con lunged just as he was getting ready to fire. Santos watched as Sunstreaker burst forward and sliced the mech's face in half, then pulled Hound before another one could swing his sword. Together they retreated into the safety of their comrades.

"Close it!" Lennox yelled the moment they passed the threshold. Cliffjumper slammed a fist into the button and the doors slid close with a loud boom.

The Cons pounded outside, but it held.

Santos took a shuddering breath. He glanced around. Of the five hundred or so soldiers who formed the main defense force, only less than two hundred remained with them. Half of them were TRF, and he was glad that Dennis was among the survivors, covered in soot and dirt, but otherwise alive.

There was no time to grieve for their fallen comrades, however. Lennox got them moving again. "Comms are still down, but we got power now so we have a little more advantage. This is the only corridor leading to the other sections. We'll link up with Rick's company and Longarm to defend the chokepoint. I need someone to go to the hangar and tell the raptor squadrons to scramble. We need air support badly."

Dennis raised a hand. "I'll go."

Santos shot him a look of astonishment. He shrugged. "What? Out of everyone here, I'm one of the least injured. You can't go, and neither can the Colonel. Or the Bots for that matter."

Despite his misgivings, Santos nodded. Dennis was always the most logical among his lieutenants, and the most reliable. If there was someone who could get the mission done, it would be him. "All right. But be careful."

With a one finger salute, Dennis jogged off. Santos watched him go for a moment and sent a silent prayer. If they got out of this mess alive, he would treat him and his surviving men to the best bar in the city.

Lennox hefted his assault rifle. "Right. Let's go."

Longarm and Rick's company were waiting for them when they arrived. They had turned the corridor into a small fort, using whatever they could find—beds, chairs, and even tables—as makeshift barriers. There were a lot of sandbags too, though Santos doubted its effectiveness against plasma bolts.

Suddenly, his neck prickled, and he looked to the right-hand hallway that led to the armory. He remembered that there was an escape tunnel hidden in there, accessible only by small vehicles.

Accessible only by small vehicles. Why hadn't they considered that during their strategy meeting?

His shout came too late. Like an avalanche, the roar of engines erupted from that direction and a host of cars sped freely toward them. At their head was the sleek police cruiser, the Decepticon Barricade, who swiftly transformed and leapt at the nearest Autobot in sight: Longarm.

Longarm was not much of a soldier, but to say he didn't fight fiercely would be insulting what he did. He charged Barricade head-on amidst the gunfire and boldly grabbed him by the shoulders, twisting around to slam him on the floor, where they began a vicious scuffle.

By then, the other Decepticons had converged on Rick's position.

Santos bellowed. They were still two hundred feet away, but they were already firing to support the company. And yet it was a futile attempt. There were a dozen Cons tearing up the whole place. The Sentinels managed a single kill, but two mechs ripped them apart afterwards in a matter of seconds. The same duo then turned their sights on Lennox's company and lay down suppressive fire.

There was no cover, no hiding place. The blasts wiped out a platoon in an instant before Hound emptied his gatling gun's ammo belt with a furious roar, taking them down instantly. The tanks rolled forward, absorbing a volley of shots streaking toward Santos's position. He shielded his face from the wave of heat that spread from their explosions. But for all the good their sacrifices did, Rick's company was still far away. And they could only watch in rage as the slaughter continued.

Barricade grappled with Longarm, ensnared by cable wire along the neck and torso. But though Longarm was bulkier, Barricade was a seasoned soldier. He broke free of his restraints and kicked him in the chest, then got to his feet and delivered a series of punches, staggering the Autobot. Disoriented, Longarm didn't notice a red femme Con sneaking up behind him with a gleeful look, arm-blade extended.

Until that moment, Santos didn't realize how vibrant energon was when spilled. But the energon gushing out of the hole in Longarm's chest was as blue as the sky he saw when took his wife and daughter to a picnic, so long ago.

"Shatter!" Cliffjumper bellowed, the first time Santos had heard him in a voice full of fury.

Longarm's lifeless body collapsed on the floor with a crash, and Barricade and Shatter turned their attention toward the charging Autobots and soldiers, who were finally, finally, near enough to engage the Cons directly.

Cliffjumper went straight for Shatter at once, and they entered a furious dance of fists and arm-blades. But Santos had no time to watch the two sides duke it out. Ducking past flailing metal limbs and high heat rounds exploding on the floor, he and a small team searched the area for any survivors.

He found Rick and six men hiding behind the wreckage of a Sentinel, trying to keep a Con at bay. They were bloodied and covered in soot, and one was on the floor, his right leg bent at an awkward angle. When he saw Santos, Rick's eyes met his gaze for a moment then stared at the mech's feet.

Santos understood his meaning. The Con's back was facing them, and the rest were busy fighting Lennox's group and the Autobots. Cliffjumper was still grappling with Shatter, and Sunstreaker was holding off Barricade. Trailbreaker was protecting Lennox's strike team while Hound took on six Cons alone.

With hand signals from Santos, five troopers broke off and stealthily made their way toward the Con's feet, planting C4 charges before the mech could even realize what happened. They started to retreat, but the mech noticed the flashes of movement and turned just as his feet burst into flames.

He toppled to his side with anguished cries and aimed his blaster at them in retribution. But Santos and another group were faster, unloading a volley of sabot rounds straight into his spark chamber. With a groan of metal, the Con fully collapsed and was still.

Explosions still ringing behind them, Santos clambered over the Sentinel and dropped next to Rick. "We have to go," he said breathlessly. It pained him to leave any soldiers that might still be alive but were too injured to move, but he couldn't risk the rest of his men from getting obliterated.

Rick nodded and motioned for his troopers. "Lennox!" Santos yelled.

Lennox looked toward their position and waved his hand forward frantically. They surged to their feet, firing at any Con who tried to bar their way.

"Go! We'll cover you," Hound said as he slammed two Cons together on each other's head, breaking them like a pinãta.

Soon, Lennox and his team reached Santos, and they began another swift retreat down the corridor. "Fall back to Level Two!" Lennox said, raising his voice above the clamor of battle.

It was Cliffjumper who answered first. He threw a punch at Shatter's face, sending her rolling off him. He transformed into his vehicle mode and sped off, sweeping Barricade's feet underneath the Con. Barricade crashed, allowing Sunstreaker to roll over to Hound, slashing at the Cons holding him by the arms. Their heads fell, followed a second later by their bodies.

There was a thunderous boom. Santos felt his blood run cold; it had come from the direction of the blast doors.

"Go! Go!" Lennox urged. The floor trembled from the Autobots' rushing footsteps. Hound and Trailbreaker brought the very rear, firing wildly at the pursuing Cons. Trailbreaker thrust his arms forward and the bright blue bubble of his energon shield flared. He shoved, pushing Barricade backwards, then deactivated it just as Hound hurled a grenade.

"Fire in the hole!"

The grenade struck the ground next to a Con's feet, but Trailbreaker had already raised his shield back up. There was a bright flash of orange, and the corridor shook violently from the blast, throwing Santos and several other men to their feet. They got up swiftly and continued on their way.

Another company was stationed at the next defense point, along with more tanks and Sentinels. After making sure that they were not being followed, they climbed the ramp leading to Level Two. Samwells, a SOED lieutenant, jogged toward Lennox, who explained the situation to him.

"How did they manage to sneak up on us like that?" Samwells wondered, clutching his grenade launcher tightly. Lennox shook his head, but Santos stepped forward to answer.

"The escape tunnels. They must have found them." He shook his head. "It's likely they're guarding 'em too. We're trapped."

Lennox glanced at him. Santos saw the fear in his eyes, and he knew he was right. There was nowhere else to go. The colonel scowled. "We won't know until we hear from the command room."

While Lennox issued orders and sent messengers to Ericson and the Knights, Santos restocked his ammo. He found Rick doing the same thing, and they acknowledged each other with silent nods. When they finished, they took positions at the very front of the defense line. From where Santos stood, he could see down the sloping ramp and the blast doors at the end, three hundred feet away.

They waited, but the Decepticons never came. There were explosions going off below them, so Santos knew they hadn't left. His thoughts drifted to Izzy, and he hoped that she and the others had escaped.

Suddenly, his earpiece crackled with static. His eyes widened, and from the expressions of the others, he knew that they had heard the same thing. The comms were working again!

Lennox immediately spoke, "Lennox to Command Room, do you read?" There was a pause, and then his grim expression turned to relief. "Thank God," he muttered. "Ericson, what's the situation downstairs?"

They waited with bated breaths while Lennox conversed with Ericson. His mouth was set in a grim line once more and his shoulder tensed. During a brief lull in the conversation, he said, "Cons are tearing up the whole place and taking out our security cameras. Another strike force hit the hangar during the firefight in the corridor. Our raptor squadron didn't stand a chance."

Santos's heart crawled to his throat. "And Dennis?"

Lennox hesitated, then spoke slowly. "Ericson said they saw someone heading for the quarters, but the feed went dark before they could confirm his identity."

"It's him." Santos refused to believe that his friend would die easily. "It's Dennis."

"There's one more thing." Lennox glanced at the Autobots this time, and Santos saw the fear returned to his eyes. "Megatron is leading one of the strike forces."

The temperature in the tunnel seemed to drop all of a sudden, and an icy silence enveloped them. They had known for so long that they would eventually have to face the Decepticon leader in battle, but to actually be put in that situation with crippling disadvantages was a scenario they had only briefly discussed upon. Santos had even hoped they would have the full might of the US military when that happened.

Finally, Hound shrugged. "Good. I've been dying to get some shots against ol' Megsy."

"We can't let him have the relics," Rick growled. "We have to defend them no matter what."

"We will," assured Lennox. "Right now, we need to—" Lennox stiffened. He tapped on his earpiece, frowning. "Say that again?" A beat, then he grew deathly white that Santos reacted immediately, his instincts roaring at him.

"Everyone out of the way, NOW!" Lennox roared.

Not a moment too soon. With a loud hum, a bright beam of pure heat pierced through the doors, sweeping up in an arc and melting everything in its path. Few things could shock Santos, none more so than this. He watched as everything in the beam's path—soldiers, barricades, and even tanks and Sentinels—melted like butter. There was not even a chance for some of his men to utter a sound. They were just… gone, along with their clothes and gears.

Rage and terror swelled inside Santos. What the actual fuck was that?

The resulting explosions from the tanks and Sentinels sent a shockwave through the area. He flattened himself to the ground, feeling the heat behind him. Shouts and screams filled his ears. After the moment had passed, Santos looked around.

The beam obliterated the lights as well, so all they had were the flashlights from their weapons and floodlights from the Autobots. But from what Santos could see, the squadrons who were lucky enough to be away from the beam's range were mostly uninjured save for a few burns. The Autobots had immediately jumped to the side, so they had escaped getting obliterated. The same could not be said for those who were near the vehicles; Santos could already smell the acrid scent of burnt flesh.

"You guys all right?" Lennox shouted, his face covered by soot. He leaned on a barricade unsteadily. "What the hell was that?"

"Some kind of beam cannon," answered Trailbreaker, who was helping Cliffjumper to his feet. "I've never seen anything like it, but it is more powerful than Megatron's fusion cannon." He looked up at the ceiling with a grimace, seeing the smoldering hole. It was wide enough for a Transformer to walk through. "Definitely more powerful."

Lennox said grimly, "Let's hope it takes a long time to recharge. Samwells, take some of the field medics and see to the wounded. We'll—"

There was no time to mourn for the dead and the dying, nor tend the injured. Santos and the others immediately scrambled to reform the line as a deafening boom filled the chamber. A pair of gigantic hands appeared, pushing through the hole.

"Hold fire!" Lennox shouted.

Santos's jaw tightened. The hands gripped the edge of the hole and pulled. Metal tore, a screeching sound that made Santos want to cover his ears. He winced in pain, holding his focus. The steel doors bent against the sheer force. Then with another loud boom, the entire gate was wrenched free from the wall.

The defenders fired.

Bruticus bellowed, the bullets bouncing off his thick armor. Black smoke obscured the gaping entrance, but within it churned a mass of charging forms… and a buzzing noise suddenly filled his ears. It sounded like a swarm of beetles approaching. He glanced at Lennox in confusion. The commander's soot-covered face had an equal expression, his eyebrows furrowed.

The buzzing noise stopped, only to be replaced by a half-roar, half-screeching sound that made Santos's blood run cold. It didn't sound like a Transformer. He watched as six dark shapes, larger than the Decepticon grunts but still dwarfed by Bruticus, launched from within the haze.

Santos froze only for a brief moment before emptying his clip at whatever was charging at them. The only thing he could see were blood-red eyes on massive bodies of pure metal that absorbed anything they threw, even anti-armor shells. To his right, he heard Hound curse followed by a single word: "Insecticons."

Then the monsters closed the three hundred feet distance in less than five seconds. And it was all chaos from there.

One went straight for the tanks, and all Santos saw was the glint of scythe-like claws as they tore through the thick armor like paper maché. Another leapt at the Sentinels, turning them into scrap metal. Not even their specialized shells, built to kill a Transformer in one shot, managed to put even a single dent into its black armor.

The soldiers shouted around him as the remaining four broke through the barricades. Santos ducked as one of the monsters swiped at his position, gouging the floor and forcing him to retreat with Lennox and ten other men. It was so close that when Santos finally saw it clearly, he let out a curse and sent a silent prayer to all the saints and angels he knew.

It was definitely a Transformer, but nothing like he had ever seen in his years of fighting them. The armor was more like a metallic carapace, encasing the monster's heavily-built body. And the mandibles. Jesus, they have fucking mandibles like an insect! If the other Decepticons he had seen were scary, these things were downright terrifying.

There was… There was no stopping them. Santos felt terror gripping his chest. Lennox was yelling something in his ears, but he failed to hear them, his eyes fixed on the carnage in front of him. He saw one of the SOEDs getting impaled by its claws. A squad was literally torn to shreds by the same monster using its other hand, before crushing a soldier under its clawed feet.

Then he felt a stinging sensation across his right cheek. Startled, Santos swiveled his head to Lennox, who was already lowering his hand. His mind instantly cleared, and he finally noticed the colonel's tight grip on his shoulder. He met his gaze. He nodded shakily.

"To the relic vault!" Lennox shouted to anyone still alive.

Six rallied to his call, dodging one of the monsters' swiping claws. Sunstreaker supported them with his blaster, but he soon ran out of ammo, so he jumped with his swords out, tackling an Insecticon in mid-air. They crashed to the floor, grappling ferociously. The swordsmech tried to impale the monster in the chest, but his right-hand sword broke immediately from the impact. Cursing, Sunstreaker slammed a fist into its ugly face.

Samwells's squad followed, shooting a volley of rockets and grenades at another Insecticon. Nearby, Hound threw his empty shotgun at its head, gaining the monster's attention. With a growl, the Insecticon lunged toward him, trading blows and roars that shook the tunnel. By then the other two had reached Cliffjumper and Trailbreaker, and an all-out melee brawl commenced.

It was hard to shoot without accidentally hitting their comrades; thankfully, this was one of the first things they had practiced after arriving at the base. A Sentinel who had miraculously survived the initial onslaught shot a precise volley, taking off pressure from a bleeding Cliffjumper without even touching him. The blasts did not kill the Insecticon, but it was blown all the way down to the ramp, hissing in pain. Another volley, complemented by anti-armor rockets from the TRF and SOED squads, destroyed it for good.

Rick's team supported Trailbreaker, who was using his energon shield to keep his opponent from butchering the soldiers behind him. But it didn't do much good; the Insecticon broke through it and lunged at the mech. Cliffjumper surged forward and tackled it, unloading energon blasts directly in its face.

It snarled at him, barely in pain.

Santos was hoping they could at least win this battle, but a shout from a soldier plunged his heart to despair. From the entrance, another group of Decepticons approached, firing blindly. They didn't even care if they hit their own troops, even if the shots did little damage, as long as they hit the Autobots.

The strategy was horrifyingly effective. One missile struck the lone Sentinel, and it was down for good, smoke billowing from its front. Trailbreaker cried in pain from a direct blast to his chest, sending him sprawling to the ground. His armor was shattered. Cliffjumper instinctively glanced at him with concern, and it was that momentary distraction that nearly got his head sheared off if not for Hound picking up his opponent and hurling him toward Cliffjumper's. The Insecticons crashed into each other, wailing, and tumbled away.

Santos ran off with Lennox, laying down suppressive fire. From the entrance, he caught a glimpse of a hulking figure, overshadowed by Bruticus's looming form. But its eyes gleamed—two purple orbs shining with malicious intent. Santos averted his gaze and continued to where Rick, Samwells, and thirty some men were hunkered down.

Suddenly, Trailbreaker's forcefield flared again. It slammed Cliffjumper's opponent in the chest, sending it skidding toward the other two who had set their sights on Hound. "Sunny!" he yelled, standing on wobbling legs.

The Autobot Lamborghini was still exchanging blows with his opponent, eyes blazing with fury, but Trailbreaker's voice snapped him to focus. He rolled away just as another barrier blossomed in front of him, halting the Insecticon in its advance. The panel of blue light expanded, merging with a third one near Hound, until an azure bubble encompassed the entire width of the tunnel.

The shield… The shield held. The Insecticons pounded onto it with so much force that the tunnel shook from their thunderous blows, but it held. Behind them, the Decepticons continued to fire. And still it held.

Santos and several of the soldiers gaped in awe, staring at Trailbreaker in wonder. He knew the capabilities of each Autobot, their strengths and weaknesses. But this was the first time that he had seen the mech use his unique ability to this extent.

And then Trailbreaker spoke in a strained voice. "Go. I only have enough energon for a few minutes." He groaned from the effort, hands thrust forward in front of him, energon pooling by his feet. But he was standing firmly, bathed in blue light that never wavered.

It took a heartbeat for Santos to realize what the Autobot meant, and something in his chest stirred. Until this moment, he had held no love for the mechs, for any of them, and he would have gladly shot them in other circumstances, especially if this alliance had not happened. He never even spent time with any of them outside training.

And yet… this was not what he wanted.

"What?" No!" The words left his mouth before he knew what he was saying. "No, we won't leave anyone behind!"

The Decepticons continued their relentless assault. One Insecticon tried to bash his head against the barrier, only for it to bounce off with a loud thunk. The Insecticon snarled.

"If I remove the barrier, we'll all die and Megatron will get the relics." Trailbreaker shook his head. "We can't let that happen."

"Then we'll fight together!" Santos sounded almost desperate. Why am I saying this? And then Izzy's words returned to him.

Are you even happy with what you're doing?

Hound sighed. "We'll run out of ammo before we can kill one of these ugly bastards."

"So you're just going to leave one of your own?" Santos spun to him with a furious glare, an action he would not have considered doing three days ago.

"We all know what we've all signed up for," Hound said softly, gazing at Trailbreaker with a somber look. "Let him go. This is his choice."

Santos looked at Lennox helplessly, but the man held a firm expression and simply shook his head. He saw the remaining Autobots, battered and bleeding, armor plates dented. Cliffjumper could barely stand up, and Sunstreaker bore a lot of scratches from his fight with the Insecticon. Santos saw his own men, his comrades, many of whom had to be supported onto their feet.

Frustration churned inside Santos, and he gritted his teeth. Without looking back, he began to march away.

"Good luck, all of you," Trailbreaker said softly.

They were the last words Santos would ever hear from him.

###

Their footsteps echoed along the dark corridor, swift and frantic. The lights went out once again not five minutes ago, so they were back to using flashlights. It made Santos feel on edge, so he kept his assault rifle aimed ahead, finger hovering on the trigger.

They rounded a corner, and he nearly shot Ericson.

"Woah, woah! Friendlies!" The base commander raised a hand, yelling, while his other lowered the handgun he clutched tightly. Behind him was a crowd of technicians and personnel from the command room, flanked by half a dozen guards.

Santos breathed a sigh of relief, as did Lennox. "You turned off the power?" Lennox asked, lowering his gun. Santos didn't, however, though he made sure to aim away from the front. He kept glancing back over his shoulder, ears strained for the slightest hint of pursuit.

Ericson shook his head. "No. Cons destroyed the generators. But I made sure to download every file from our servers before destroying them." He looked past Lennox, his mouth tightening into a thin line as he saw the survivors, most of whom were covered haphazardly by bandages. "Are you the only ones?"

Lennox nodded gravely. "The others couldn't make it."

The flash of rage on Ericson's face was one Santos sympathized with, and if he could, he would go back there and unload every bullet and grenade he had on Megatron's spark chamber. But he knew that would not fix the hot mess they were in right now.

"Are we evacuating then?" Ericson asked, joining Lennox at the vanguard as they resumed their flight toward the vault containing the relics.

Lennox didn't reply, which Santos found odd. They soon rounded the corner and saw the Knights Apprentices standing in front of the blast doors, swords in hand while Dreadwing held the Skyboom Shield. The moment they approached, Steelbane lowered his weapon and strode forward.

"So few of you are left," he murmured, eyes wide. "What happened?" Behind him, Dreadwing and Skyquake exchanged worried glances.

While Lennox recounted the battle to Steelbane, Santos helped a soldier limp to the wall, where he leaned for support. Of the nine hundred men the base initially had, only fifty remained with him and Lennox, not including Ericson's small escort and the command room staff. Two Autobots were dead, the rest injured. And their ammo was running out.

No matter how Santos looked at their situation, they were definitely screwed a hundred times over. He was not a pessimist, but he knew a losing battle when he saw one. Even if they made their last stand here, the Decepticons would just incinerate them all with that overpowered beam cannon of theirs. Not to mention those monsters that Hound had called Insecticons. What hope did they have left?

"Before power went out for good, we managed to send a warning to Fowler and our forces in Japan," Santos heard Ericson say. "Even if we die here, they can at least contact the Pentagon to stage a counterattack and retake the relics."

Die. Ever since he lost his family, Santos had wanted to die, but his desire for vengeance kept him going on, fighting what he had always thought to be the good fight. Now after seeing the men under his command torn to shreds and the beings he considered as enemies sacrificed themselves to save him and his comrades, Santos didn't want to die. But he still wanted vengeance against their true enemy.

"Are you implying that we will fall here?" Skyquake scowled. "You underestimate our prowess, human."

"You haven't seen how Megatron blasted a hole through the doors that could withstand a nuclear explosion," retorted Lennox. "He also brought some kind of Decepticon shock troops."

Steelbane stiffened at that. "What do you mean?"

So Lennox told them. Santos listened idly. He could still see that bright flash coming from the blast doors and the feeling of being directly in front of the sun as that beam pierced the ceiling. Whatever it was, Megatron would surely use it again. He didn't want to think about the casualties it could cause when its target was an army, or worse, a large city.

When Lennox finished, Steelbane's expression darkened, prompting Santos to shoot him a curious glance. From his brief observations of the Knights, Santos gathered that they were rarely perturbed unless a situation was frighteningly serious. "And you say you've never seen this kind of attack before?"

Lennox nodded. "We've fought Megatron a lot of times in the past. This is something new to him. Know anything about the cannon?"

Steelbane hesitated, almost as if he was reluctant to say something, then shook his head. "This mystery can wait. But I can tell you a little about the Insecticons."

Hound shifted where he stood. "They are supposed to be extinct."

"Extinct?" Rick wondered.

The Autobot commando nodded. "I've read stories about 'em. They are said to be the greatest soldiers of that Fallen guy. The Primes killed them all during their war." He shrugged. "Or so everyone thought."

"We can attest to that," Skyquake said. "While the Predacons are the hunters, the Insecticons are the killers. They won't stop until their prey is no more." He narrowed his eyes. "They are not supposed to be alive. We made sure of that."

"Just like Predaking," Lennox breathed. "Are you saying that someone is reviving all these monsters?"

Steelbane shook his head. "I do not know, Colonel. What's important right now is how we will defend this position."

"And how we will stop the Insecticons," Rick said.

"Simple; we kill them all," Hound commented with a grin. A few soldiers gave him withering looks, and even Cliffjumper groaned in annoyance.

"If only it's as easy as that," Santos said. The sight of an Insecticon shrugging off multiple rocket barrages was still fresh in his mind. They killed one, but it took a whole lot of effort and ammo. He even doubted if the Knights could hold them off without getting overwhelmed.

He soon noticed Lennox staring at him. Santos cocked an eyebrow. "What?" he demanded.

"I've been thinking," Lennox muttered. He glanced at Steelbane, who raised an optic ridge. "We can't let Megatron get the Omega Keys."

The Knight grunted. "That's why we're going to make a stand here, where they will die by our swords." Behind him, the twins murmured in agreement.

"And if we can't defeat them?" Lennox passed a hand through his hair. "There's a possibility."

Silence blanketed the corridor. Santos had considered that himself, and he knew he would not go down without a fight. He just hoped and prayed that Dennis got out alive, and that Izzy could escape before the Decepticons had overran the first level.

"What are you implying, Colonel Lennox?" Dreadwing asked slowly.

Lennox paused, and Santos suddenly got the feeling that he would not like what he was going to say next. When the man spoke, his words were firm and clear. "I'm saying that we don't have to keep the relics here. There's a service tunnel on the east side, large enough for a platoon and one Autobot. It leads to the storage area. There's an escape tunnel there." He drew a deep breath. "What if a small unit sneaks away the relics out of here?"

Ericson frowned. "Even if they could, the Cons are most likely guarding every escape route. They will have to fight their way through."

"They will be lightly guarded," countered Lennox. "Megatron probably knows that the Knights are kept in reserve; he will pour most of his strength here. The unit can sneak away while we keep him occupied."

The base commander shook his head. "Too risky."

"We have to gamble now. Otherwise, we'd be wasting all the sacrifices."

Ericson clamped his mouth shut. A palpable silence engulfed the corridor, enough that they could hear the explosions below them.

Lennox had a point though, thought Santos. Even if they made their last stand here, Megatron would still get the relics once they were dead. There was also the non-combatant personnel to consider. They would need to at least keep them and the Omega Keys away from his hands for as long as they could, but who would be willing to abandon comrades and perform a suicide mission like that?

The sound of crashing broke the silence. They spun around to face the direction where it came from, and those who were resting on the floor bolted to their feet as fast as their various injuries would let them. There were no barricades this time, and no armor support. They would either survive here defending the position, or die trying.

There were several soft clicks. When Santos looked behind him, he saw Skyquake and Dreadwing handing the Omega Keys to Lennox, the relics collapsing into their miniature forms. At first, he thought he would give it to Ericson. But when Lennox approached him and offered the relics, Santos couldn't form the proper response.

"Find Izabella and the others then get the hell out of here. Take the command room staff."

His words didn't initially register to him. Santos stared at the relics, shining faintly in the darkness. It reminded him of the artifacts in the Vatican museums, which he and his family had once seen during a trip.

They heard a roar coming down the corridor. Lennox shoved the relics onto Santos's chest, prompting him to grasp them instinctively. They were warm to his skin, as if they were releasing their own heat.

Another roar, louder this time. Cliffjumper shouted a warning as an Insecticon charged out of the darkness, claws spread wide and snarling. Steelbane bellowed a fierce war cry and met it head-on, and the clang of steel filled the corridor.

"Incoming!" Hound yelled. More Insecticons surged forward. His dual pistols blazed.

"Go, go!" Lennox pushed Santos away. He nearly stumbled, but he looked back, staying rooted on his feet as he clutched the relics with one hand and the foregrip of his assault rifle with the other. The bright flashes of muzzle fire were almost blinding, but he could see Skyquake and Dreadwing rushing to defend Steelbane from the Insecticons while Hound and Cliffjumper fired at the Decepticon strike force not far behind the monsters. The Skyboom Shield rang as Dreadwing deflected a blow from his opponent before smashing the shield against its face.

"Go. We have to go now!"

Someone grabbed him by the arm and dragged him away. As if coming out of a daze, Santos looked to his left and saw Rick with an urgent look.

Holding onto the relics tightly, Santos nodded. "Ericson!"

The base commander stood by Hound's feet, firing a SAW he had acquired. Without glancing back, he shouted, "No! I won't leave my men here!"

Santos swore. A Con crashed to the floor, its head blown off. Two more succumbed to a volley from Samwells's squadron, but there were just too many coming from down the corridor. One of them zeroed in on the relics and lunged.

In a heartbeat, Sunstreaker was on him, bisecting the Con with his sword. As the bodies fell on a rapidly expanding pool of energon, he rolled to Santos, shouting, "Move! Hurry!" as he ushered over two dozen personnel. Eight troopers guarded their rear, laying down covering fire.

"Santos!" Rick bellowed in his ears when he refused to budge from his spot.

With a heavy heart, Santos finally moved and took the lead.


When the explosions and gunfire had started, Izzy had wanted to help.

She hated being helpless, treated like a fragile object who had to be kept safe. Safety didn't help her survive living in the streets, scrounging for scraps to sell so she could have breakfast the next day. Safety didn't save her parents, who both thought they could be safe if they tried to escape a burning Chicago.

And right now, being safe meant her friends had to fight on their own without her help.

She growled in frustration and paced around the gigantic room that Canopy had ushered her in, hands on her hips. It was built for Cybertronians, so the bed towered over her like a small house. But even if it was a regular-sized bed, she wouldn't be able to sit on it and wait. Not with those noises that reminded her too much of Chicago.

They had to help, Izzy knew it. Nightstalker and the others may be small, but they have proven themselves to be capable fighters. Even Canopy, terrified as he was for her wellbeing, could assist in the defense. He was huge, and he knew how to hold a blaster.

The only one who was probably useless in a fight was Jimmy, but that was already a given. The man sat on a plastic chair, as far away from the door as possible, holding a flashlight. In his lap was an assault rifle, which kept rattling from his shaking right leg. He was muttering a prayer under his breath while he kept a fearful gaze at the gaping doorway where Canopy and the others stood vigilant outside.

Izzy rolled her eyes. Jimmy was a cowardly idiot, and there was no point wishing for him to be otherwise. Besides, she got a more pressing matter to rack her brain with: how would she convince Canopy to help?

She shook her head. No, that was not right. Forcing her friend to fight was like asking him to suicide. She couldn't do that, not to him, not to Sqweeks, or even Nightstalker and the others. She couldn't ask them to die just because their friends might. But then she couldn't just stand here and do nothing, either.

A clang drew her attention. Jimmy stood up so fast his chair toppled. In his haste to grab his rifle, he dropped the flashlight, which fell on the floor with a clatter. "Shit!" he said, fumbling for the plastic cylinder.

The emergency lights were still on, so Izzy was not bothered by the loss of illumination. She glanced at the doorway. Nightstalker and Stripes growled, while Ramhorn snorted and lowered his head.

"I think someone's coming," Wheelie said, hiding behind one of Ramhorn's hind legs. Next to him, Brains peered in the dark corridor. They were both holding their weapons, though Izzy doubted if it would do anything against the Decepticons.

Her heart hammered in her chest, then slowed down. There were footsteps—human footsteps.

"Who's there?" Jimmy yelled, a bit higher pitched than Izzy had heard him before, laced with fear and panic. He held his gun awkwardly and waved it at the doorway. "Don't come any closer. W-We're armed and we'll k-kill you!"

Izzy resisted the urge to punch his lights out. If the Decepticons didn't know where they were before, they surely did now. She walked up to him and hissed, "Keep your voice down!"

He looked at her with wide eyes. "I'm just warning them," he whispered.

"Your warning will get us killed!"

"What? No, I'm just—"

The footsteps were closer. Izzy heard Canopy's blaster hummed, and Jimmy fell silent. Then: "Wait! The base commander sent me here!"

Izzy bolted to her feet, grabbed her bag of supplies and Molotovs, and rushed to the doorway, ignoring Jimmy's protests. Sqweeks followed her. Outside, she saw a soldier in beige combat fatigues, holding both hands high in the air as Nightstalker and Stripes prowled in a circle. "Friendly!" His eyes darted between them nervously.

Canopy lowered his blaster, and the two Cybertronian cats lurked near Izzy. A huge sigh came from Jimmy as he stood next to her. "Oh, thank God. Did we win? Are the Decepticons dead?"

The soldier blinked. The explosions were still going on, so Izzy could understand his confusion. "No, the base has probably been breached by now," he answered. "I was ordered to help you escape the mountain."

Izzy stiffened. Escape the mountain? They are just supposed to leave their friends behind?

Jimmy spluttered, "What? Then why the hell are we still here?" He started to move, then realized that Izzy was not following him. "Hey, let's go!"

"Go if you want. I'll stay here and try to help." She walked in the opposite direction. A foot came down in front of him, blocking her path. She glared at Canopy. "Canopy, let me through," she said calmly.

The Autobot shook his head. "I can't."

She tried to walk around his leg, but his other one blocked her too. She sighed in exasperation and faced him. "Don't you trust me?"

"I do." Canopy hunched down, peering at her directly with his gentle blue eyes. "Izzy, you are a brave girl. Braver than me. But I'd rather be a coward than lose you."

She turned away, unable to meet his gaze. She knew she was acting stupid right now, but she couldn't help it. She didn't want anyone else sacrificing themselves to protect her. If she could fight, she would do it without hesitation.

But she couldn't. Taking down Sentinels in war-torn streets using improvised explosives was one thing; fighting trained Decepticon soldiers was another. She wouldn't survive. And where would that leave Sqweeks and Canopy? Must they lose someone dear to them again like how she lost her parents?

Her expression softened, and she turned to him with a faint smile, patting his metallic cheek. "Don't worry. I won't leave you." With a sigh, she followed an impatient Jimmy into the hallway.

###

They had been running for almost fifteen minutes when the lights came back on.

Izzy blinked in surprise, wondering what it meant. She could still hear the fighting, so she knew they were still in danger. But if power was back on, did that mean they were winning?

When she asked Maddens, the soldier who was escorting them, he shook his head. "I don't know."

After passing through several corridors, the lights went out again, forcing them to resort to flashlights once more. Izzy swallowed. The darkness made her heart race. Even when she was a kid, she never liked it when her parents turned off the lights in her room. It made her think of monsters under her bed and ghosts lurking in the shadowy corners.

It was often cool in the base due to being inside a mountain, even with heaters. But now that they were not working due to lack of electricity, the air felt like one of those winter nights when she and her parents went to Ireland for a trip. She was glad that she had brought a sweater jacket with her, one of the few clothes she could grab.

They almost rounded the corner when Canopy held up a hand. "Wait. Let me check." Slowly, he crept, making as little noise as possible despite his size. Izzy and the others pressed themselves to the wall, standing in a line behind him. The cool surface sent shivers down Izzy's spine.

Canopy peered around the corner and froze. Izzy frowned. A few seconds passed, but he was not moving. "Canopy?" she asked, taking a step toward him.

He immediately swiveled his head in her direction. "No, don't look!" His expression was masked with terror. Something about his eyes told Izzy that there was something horrible just past the corner.

Maddens swallowed hard. "How bad is it?" He seemed to understand what was going on.

Shaking his head, Canopy faced them. "Not here. We can't go through here.," he mumbled, his body trembling.

What had Canopy seen? It was a question Izzy didn't wish to be answered. Unfortunately, Jimmy was growing impatient.

"Well, we can't stay here, can we?" he said. "Any moment and the Decepticons will find us." He broke off from them and strode around the corridor. Canopy reached to stop him, but too late.

"No!" he warned. A second later, Jimmy also froze and dropped his flashlight.

"What the fuck?" His scream was almost deafening. He retreated a few steps, twisted his ankles, and collapsed on his butt, pointing shakily in front of him. His rifle had fallen beside him. "W-What the—" He covered his mouth, making a choking sound in his throat, and threw up on the floor.

Curiosity got the better of Izzy. Ignoring Canopy's moans of protests, she ran toward Jimmy and looked at what had terrified a full grown adult and a gigantic robot.

She wished she had not.

Izzy was no stranger to death. Ever since she saw how her parents died, and after seeing all those corpses in Chicago, she had developed an almost apathy whenever she saw a dead body. For her, a corpse was just that: a corpse. Once a living person, now a decaying mass of flesh and bone, or metal if it was a Cybertronian. She would grieve when needed, especially if it was one of her friends. But if she saw a dead body, she would pay it no mind any more than one paid attention to a dead rat.

But this… This was beyond her limits. She tried to resist the bile rising in her throat, and failed miserably. Like Jimmy, she vomited on the floor and closed her eyes, trying to purge the images of so much blood and guts strewn across the floor, as if a giant blender had gone through everyone. The sight was worse than that horror movie she, Cade, and the mechs had watched before.

She drew a deep breath and, her eyes still closed, asked, "Is there any other way than here?"

"Yes. But it will take longer for us to get to the escape tunnel," she heard Maddens say, somewhere close. "If we take that route, there's a high chance we'll encounter Decepticons. This way is much quicker."

She nodded and forced her eyes open, wiping the bile in her mouth with the back of her hand. Canopy came up next to her, blocking as much of the view as he could. "Stay close to me," he said.

"Thank you," she muttered.

They proceeded down the corridor once Jimmy had calmed down. It was not an easy trip. Though the darkness and Canopy's bulk saved Izzy from seeing the worst, the floor was slick with something… something she did not want to think about. It made traversing the length of the corridor treacherous, and on several instances, she almost lost her footing until she grabbed onto Canopy's leg.

Halfway across, Jimmy screamed again. Izzy glanced behind her, then quickly returned her attention to the front. She thought she saw something round by Jimmy's feet, but she did not let her gaze stay to determine what it was.

Brain's comment only made it worse. "Where do you think the rest of his body is?"

"Probably that one over there?" Wheelie suggested. There was a pause. "Ah, never mind. He already got a head."

"Whoa! Look at this dude's lungs! Must be a smoker."

They pressed on despite the nauseating sights. Did the Decepticons really do this? Izzy knew they were horrible—she had seen it in Chicago—but this was something worse. It's like they enjoyed butchering humans rather than simply killing them. This was not the work of soldiers; this was the work of a psychopath.

A shiver ran through her. If there was a Con capable of doing this among the enemies that the others were facing, Izzy hoped they would kill him without mercy.

At the end of the corridor, the same scene greeted them: walls covered with blood, body parts strewn everywhere. It was a macabre sight of death and carnage, and Izzy felt the bile returning to her throat. But she swallowed hard and forced it down. She couldn't throw up until they were away from this. It would only hamper their progress.

They were going as silently as they could, and her ears were sharp, so she heard it first. Amidst the explosions and gunfire still going on in the distance, there was a faint series of clicks above them, slow and deliberate. Izzy looked up in an instant. The flashlights barely reached the ceiling, higher than Canopy stood. She squinted hard, sure that she had seen something. But it was too dark for her.

"What is it?" Jimmy asked nervously, following her gaze. Noticing them, the others stopped.

"I don't know," Izzy said in an uncertain voice. Had she just imagined hearing those clicks? "I thought I heard something."

Maddens cocked his head, listening. He shook his head. "I don't hear anything."

"And neither do we," Wheelie piped in alongside Brains.

Izzy was not convinced. She glanced at Canopy, who also shook his head, then at Nightstalker and Stripes. The two were silent, their tails stiff as they watched the ceiling above them. She felt a nagging feeling in her mind. The two robotic cats were hunters; their sensors were better than most of the Bots, except for Bee, Drift, and Crosshairs. They must have heard it too.

"It's just your imagination," Jimmy sighed, dropping his gaze to Izzy. "Look, kid. I know it's been stressful for us. Hell, I'm stressed already! Maybe you're the same. So please, please, ignore whatever you're hearing and seeing and let us just go across this hellish corridor so I—uh, we could escape and—"

It was too fast that Izzy failed to realize what had happened until Jimmy's head was rolling across the blood-soaked floor, his rapidly glazing eyes wide with shock and fear. Above his collapsing body, a thin, long appendage glinted in the darkness, ending with a sharp blade. She clamped a hand over her mouth and retreated into the safety of Canopy's legs, whimpering.

Jimmy's dead. Jimmy was dead.

Maddens yelled and fired his handgun, emptying the clip. The cats snarled and their automatic guns blazed, filling the corridor with bright orange flashes. The appendage disappeared back into the ceiling as Canopy aimed his blaster with shaking hands. His shots missed, naturally. But Izzy heard a loud and feminine, "Ow! That hurts!"

Their assailant dropped down in front of Maddens, who froze in fright just as he was reloading his weapon. She was sleek, black as darkness, and her eyes sparkled with murderous delight. Barely sparing him a glance, the femme Con speared him in the chest with one of her eight appendages sprouting from her back and hurled his body a hundred feet into the air. There was a crunch a few seconds later, and his scream was cut short.

"Izzy, RUN!" Canopy roared. His blaster hummed, but the Con deftly avoided the shots, twisting her body as she charged.

"Is that how you treat a lady?" she said, swatting aside Nightstalker and Stripes like flies. They hurtled into the wall and crashed, sliding into the floor with mewls of pain. Ramhorn's rocket batteries flared, but she slashed at them with a precision that rivaled Drift. The diminutive rhino lowered his head and barreled straight for her in a reckless charge.

The Con grabbed onto Ramhorn just as he slammed into her. With a grin, she lifted him into the air with both hands, his legs flailing, then drove him headfirst back to the floor, shattering his horn. His agonized keen filled the corridor. Two of the Con's spider-like appendages lanced through his head, and Ramhorn stopped moving.

"Next," the Con smiled as she spread her appendages wide. Two of them dripped energon, six were coated with fresh human blood. Her predatory gaze fell on Canopy.

"Izzy, we have to go!" Wheelie shouted, sitting atop a terrified Sqweeks.

His voice and the sound of her friend's terror-filled chattering snapped Izabella out of her stupor. Fear was replaced with boiling anger, and she reached for her bag, grabbing a Molotov. She raised it high above her head with a yell.

"Hey, ugly!"

The Molotov sailed in the air, but she sidestepped it. The bottle smashed into the floor behind her, and a ball of flame rose up. Silhouetted by the orange glow of the fire, she sauntered toward them.

"Cute." She grinned cheekily. Canopy fired until his blaster was empty; she danced around the shots like a ballerina, weaving between them with effortless grace. Her movements were languid, and there was a morbid beauty to them that sent icy fingers of fear gripping Izzy's heart.

Canopy charged at her with a bellow, arms spread on either side to catch her which way she might go. But the Con leapt, using his head like a springboard, and landed in front of Izzy with a devious smile.

"Boo!" The spider legs on her back spread to their fullest and lunged.

Perhaps it was instinct, or the adrenaline rush coursing through her body. Maybe it was the rage at seeing the people around her die, fueling Izzy into evading the sharp, deadly points. She rolled out of the way, and the legs slashed empty air. To her left, Nightstalker and Stripes struggled to their feet, then rushed in her defense, firing their autocannons.

The Con blocked them with her appendages, but a few grazed her torso and legs. She transformed into a huge mechanical spider, her mandibles clicking. For something so large, Izzy was shocked that the Con could move so swiftly, jumping into the ceiling where no one could reach her. A sticky white substance erupted from her rear end, blasting the cats and glueing their legs to the floor. Another stream struck Canopy's foot. He struggled to pull himself out of the trap, but the substance—web, Izzy realized—was as strong as steel.

"Now, where were we?" the Con said cheerfully as she reverted to her bipedal mode, suspended on the ceiling by her legs.

Izzy threw another bottle of Molotov, but she missed her mark again and it exploded on the wall. The Con chuckled and lowered herself to the floor. "Awww, how cute! You know, I wouldn't mind having you as a pet."

She was standing in front of Izzy now, forcing her to back away to the wall. To Izzy's left, Nightstalker and Stripes tore at their restraints with a ferocity they rarely displayed. During the fighting, their weapons had been coated by the web, rendering them useless. Canopy had already freed one foot, but the other was still glued to the floor.

Izzy grabbed the last Molotov in her bag and raised it. Her gaze flicked toward Sqweeks who had somehow managed to sneak past the Con to help Canopy. Her mind raced. In a few moments, her head would be rolling across the floor. She had to do something.

"For a little human, you sure got guys." The femme smiled. "Too bad I have to kill you. But don't worry. I'll make sure it will be pain…ful."

"Yeah? How about this for painful?" Izzy threw the Molotov. It smashed against Canopy's feet, engulfing them in flames.

The Con blinked then burst out laughing. "Painful for your friend, definitely." She froze.

A wide smile split Izzy's face as the floor trembled from Canopy's thunderous charge, his feet now freed from the web. With a deafening roar, he tackled the Con and brought a fist down on her face. She snarled as she caught it with all of her appendages.

"I will so pick you apart slowly, Autobot!" she spat.

As they grappled violently on the floor, Izzy rushed to Nightstalker and Stripes, pulling out a knife from her bag. Careful not to get close to the flames, she began helping Nightstalker cut through the webbing by her feet. Sqweeks rolled next to Izzy, and Wheelie and Brains joined her.

Together they finally cut Nightstalker loose. Izzy looked back for a moment. Still holding onto Canopy's hand, the femme Con tucked her body and slid under his legs. She vaulted to her feet and spun around, lashing out with all eight arms. Canopy evaded most of them, but one stabbed at his shoulder, drawing energon. He stumbled back, clutching his wound.

Nightstalker lunged forward, latching onto the femme's shoulders before she could attack Canopy again, tearing a spindly leg from her back. The Con screeched, scrabbling at the panther, but Nightstalker had already leapt down. She bounded away to avoid a swipe from one of the femme's remaining legs. The femme snarled in frustration.

At last the webbing that held Stripes's feet was undone. Shaking his head, he glanced at Izzy and mewled softly. There was a soft his as he ejected his now useless autocannons, which fell to the floor with a clang. He mewled again.

"No," Izzy said firmly, understanding what he wanted to say. She couldn't leave Canopy and Nightstalker to fight the Con alone. "We need to help them."

Stripes growled. His gaze turned toward the Con, his eyes shining with determination. With a roar, he charged. The Con spun around to face him, but Nightstalker grabbed onto her lowermost, right spider arm and sank her teeth into the thin metal. The femme tried to swipe at her face, only to fall backwards as Stripes crashed into her. His claws gouged her left cheek.

"This is why I hate cats!" she howled. A swift punch sent Stripes flying backwards. He twisted in the air and landed nimbly on the floor, right in front of Izzy. The Con kicked at Nightstalker, missed, and swiftly transformed into her spider form, missing one leg. Nightstalker retreated, hissing in fury. The Con dwarfed her by a large margin, but she crouched low, ready to pounce.

The Con approached, then stopped, cocking her head to one side. Izzy heard it too—the roar of engines.

From the corridor they had come from, a pair of headlights blazed into existence, painting the Con's black armor in white. The yellow Lambhorgini sped toward the femme, his horns blaring loudly in the darkness. Sunstreaker transformed with a fierce war cry, his sword already flashing as he slashed at the Con.

She jumped back, her fangs clicking in disappointment and annoyance. "Too bad. I still want to play with you," she said, awfully cheerful for a brutal, psychotic killer robot. "Ah, well. Time to go!" A blast of her webs caught Sunstreaker in midair, slamming him to the ground. A rocket zoomed past him, exploding near the Con. Further ahead, Izzy saw Santos and several soldiers leveling rocket launchers.

They were too late. Despite her injury, the Con jumped to the ceiling and waved a crooked leg. "See ya around!" She disappeared around the corner.

All the strength seemed to leave Izzy at that moment, and she sank to her knees, her chest heaving. A man jogged to her.—it was Santos. He knelt one knee and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked.

Izzy stared at him shakily before burying her face into his chest and bursting into tears.

###

"Here! Over here! Hurry!"

Rick waved them over, coming to a stop before the gaping entrance of the escape tunnel. It was high enough for Canopy's vehicle mode to pass through, but it would be a tight fit. Santos shone his flashlight inside. There were no enemies. Satisfied, he glanced over the civilians behind him. Most were shivering in fear, no doubt even trauma, but his concerned gaze lingered on Izzy.

The girl had been silent ever since their encounter with the female Decepticon, the one Sunstreaker called Blackarachnia. She was not in TRF's database, an unknown. And yet that was the least of his worries right now. Izzy had never said a word during their flight here—a bad sign.

Santos wished he could do something, but they were still not safe. They had encountered a patrol not five minutes ago, losing a man in the ensuing firefight. The Cons would be here soon. They had to move.

"Come on. Hurry!" Nodding at Canopy, Santos helped Izzy board his hauler. Before she stepped foot, he touched her gently in the shoulder. "It's going to be fine. You're going to be safe, okay?"

She swallowed thickly, her eyes trembling. But she nodded and hauled herself up, choosing a spot in a corner. Sqweeks came next, Wheelie and Brains riding on his shoulders. Since the little Autobot had no feet, Santos and Rick had to assist him too.

"Next!" Santos ushered the command room staff.

Dennis and several troopers stood guard nearby next to Sunstreaker. Flanking them were Nightstalker and Stripes. Suddenly, a pair of scouts Santos had sent came rushing back, yelling, "Hostiles inbound!"

Santos cursed and scanned the line quickly. There were only five people left. But as fast as they climbed over Canopy, the Cons were still faster. Six grunts appeared from the corridor they had come from, firing their blasters. They pounded toward them, shouting in their warbling Cybertronian language.

A blast took out half of the troopers. By then, Sunstreaker was on them, laying on them with his sword. Nightstalker supported him with her autocannons and Stripes bounded on a Con and pulled him down, tearing his neck. While they distracted the Cons, Santos rushed over to Dennis and his surviving men. Dennis was bleeding in the arm, but he was mostly fine. Santos grabbed him by his uninjured arm and shoved him toward Canopy. "Go, go!"

Dennis nodded and led his squad to the escape tunnel, going last. When everyone was finally safe and secured in the hauler, Santos turned to Sunstreaker. Four of the Cons already lay dead. Even as he watched, the Autobot beheaded his remaining opponents in one smooth stroke.

"Sunstreaker!" Santos shouted, pointing at Canopy. The mech stared at him and nodded.

Santos jogged back to the tunnel. The robotic cats charged past him, leaping onto the hauler. He saw Izzy looking at him from where she sat. Then she bolted upright, as did everyone around her. They were screaming. He whirled around just in time to see a blast of plasma coming his way… and a blur of yellow jumping in its path.

Sunstreaker cried in agony.

Everything seemed muted to Santos at that point, a haze of rage filling his brain. He could remember roaring in fury, unloading the entire clip in his grenade launcher at the Con who had somehow survived. He could hear Izzy sobbing far away, but his gaze was focused on Sunstreaker leaning on the wall with a groan, clutching a hole in his chest where energon leaked in heartbreaking amounts.

Santos stopped at the edge of the puddle and asked the only question he could: "Why?"

For the first time since meeting him, Sunstreaker met his gaze, holding them, then sighed and looked away with a pained huff. "I'm still an Autobot. Optimus would not want it if I saved my own hide while I watched someone die in my place… and neither would my brother." He snorted. "It's funny. I have hated most of your kind ever since I arrived on this planet because of what you did to us. But I realized it was no different than what happened to our race."

They both looked as the sound of pounding footsteps echoed in the corridor, accompanied by more shouts in Cybertronian. "Go," Sunstreaker said, pulling himself up using his sword. He wobbled, then steadied himself and faced the corridor where the enemies would be arriving from.

Santos hesitated for a second, but the Autobot's voice came again, more urgent. "Unless you want to die with me, you gotta go." He turned to Santos one last time, and his tone was almost pleading. "Keep Izzy safe, would you? And please tell Optimus and Cade… tell them I'm sorry that I wouldn't be able to fight alongside them anymore."

Clutching his grenade launcher tightly, Santos nodded and bolted back toward Canopy, pushing a frantic Izzy back to the corner and hugging her close, ignoring her anguished wails. "Canopy, floor it!" he yelled amid the crackle of blaster fire. The truck roared its engines, and the floor rattled as Canopy put on a burst of speed.

This time, Santos looked back, watching Sunstreaker's rapidly dwindling form standing tall and proud as the Autobot bravely charged into battle.


How long has it been? More than a month since my last update, and for good reason. This chapter is definitely the longest one I've written for this fic, sitting at almost 15,000 words, excluding this afterword. I also went through an operation, so I couldn't write anything for a few days. That, and the fact that I have to rewrite this twice. So I'm really sorry if this took longer than I had intended.

Before I tackle the many scenes in this chapter, let me answer some of the reviews in our usual Q&A.

In response to Julien Caeg's review: Well, you weren't wrong when you said that someone will die in this chapter. XD As for Optimus vs Unicron, yes it will definitely happen in the sequels. In fact, I have big plans for those battles.

In response to GreenArrow69's review: Yes, the Wreckers will definitely appear. And really soon.

Now, about this chapter. Yes, I just killed four Autobots. I wanted to raise the stakes much higher now since we're entering the final chapters of the story. Besides, I did say in my afterword last December that there will be deaths. Another reason for this is that I will be introducing a lot of Autobots in chapter 20 or 21, and I need the roster trimmed a bit. My only regret, though, is that I wasn't able to flesh out Ramhorn, Longarm, Trailbreaker, and Sunstreaker as characters. But maybe I will do a minor rewrite of the earlier chapters to fix this. Who knows?

Originally, Cliffjumper was supposed to die here. However, I decided against doing that because most fanfics based on TF Prime nowadays are killing him, and I'm quite getting tired of that trope. Also, I need Cliffjumper for upcoming plot points in the sequels.

As for Jimmy… well, yeah I killed him too. I was not a fan of his character even in the movie, and I'd say he was a waste of screen time because he did nothing in the story. At least here, he served to show just how brutal Blackarachnia could be.

Speaking of Blackarachnia, you've read how vicious she could be in this chapter. Rest assured, though, that Airachnid would be much, much worse than the little sister and even the TF Prime version. ;)

The gore in this chapter is something I've been wanting to do for a long time. We've seen some pretty violent scenes in the movies, and even in the cartoons, but I think many of them were toned down for a broader audience. What I wrote here, then, is a desire on my part to show the brutality of the Decepticons in an all-out assault. I hope I did it right, so don't hesitate to provide honest feedback. It helps me improve my writing skills.

On a side note, there are just a lot of characters here that I couldn't give everyone the spotlight they deserve. Sorry for that! And since mecha fights are really not my forte, I'm also sorry if the action scenes were boring and dull.

Anyway, four chapters to go! Expect the unexpected, a load of twists and surprises, and an epic(hopefully!) battle!

Please Read & Review! Until next time!