"A Fracture in Time" by Shadow Master aka Ryley Breen
email: rybreen@theberries.ns.ca
Decepticon HQ, Main Throne Room, One minute ago
"What is the status of our fuel supply Soundwave?" Megatron asked as he looked down on the emotionless Decepticon warrior.
"Fuel supply at one quarter capacity. Estimated time to termination of fuel supply twenty-two stellar cycles" replied Soundwave in his icy distorted voice.
Megatron frowned at the news, their fuel supply was getting dangerously low and while the Autobots were not much better off it still concerned him. Already the search teams he had sent out to find hidden stashes of energon were beginning to come up empty handed. If this trend continued they would all soon cease to function but more importantly it would give any would be usurpers an opportunity to take control of the Decpticon forces themselves. The lack of energon and subsequent rationing of the supply was already producing rumblings of discontent among his less loyal followers and Starscream seemed a little too pleased by that. Not that the opportunistic Decepticon was a real threat, with his fusion cannon
he was still the most powerful Decepticon on Cybertron. Despite his great strength though he would not be able to keep effective control of his forces for much longer. He *had* to find more energon, even if that meant leading a group into Autobot territory and depleting what they had even further with failure a distinct possibility.
"Megatron, report from surveillance agent Laserbeak. Autobot convoy detected in sector D9." Soundwave suddenly announced as he projected an image of what Laserbeak was seeing from his eyes.
"What?! Identify destination and possible points of departure!" Megatron ordered as he tried to deduce the reason for the Autobot convoy's presence in Decepticon territory.
"Destination Iacon City. Possible points of departure sector C7, B6 and A5" replied Soundwave as the image changed from the convoy to a map of the area with red dots marking departure and destination points.
Looking at the points of departure that Soundwave was displaying Megatron immediately discounted the first two possibilities since they denoted a repair facility and a scrap yard. The third grabbed his attention immediately as he remembered that one of his own private stashes of energon were hidden in that sector. Could it be that the convoy of Autobots had discovered the location of his cache of cubes and were even now transporting it to Optimus? Unlikely, the defenses he had placed around the storehouse were formidable and it would take a miraculous amount of skill to penetrate the defenses without triggering at least one alarm. For a few moments Megatron pondered the various reasons the Autobots could have had for visiting that sector but then tossed such useless thoughts away. It mattered not why they had been there, the fact that they had trespassed on Decepticon ground was reason enough to extinguish their sparks.
Standing up Megatron said "Soudwave! Assemble a strike team to deal with these trespassers! I will lead them against the Autobots myself!"
"As you command, mighty Megatron." Soundwave replied as he gave the Decepticon salute and left the room.
Grinning slightly to himself Megatron walked down from his throne and contemplated how best to use the situation that he had been presented with moments ago. One possibility was that he could retrieve whatever energon the Autobots had stolen from him and place it in the main storage facility with the rest of the stockpile. This would quiet most of the minor dissent in his ranks and hinder the more important usurpers long enough to succeed in the thwarting of Optimus Prime's plans to find energon elsewhere. His grin widened as he remembered the report he had received detailing Optimus' decision to take his best warriors offworld in search of energon. When news of the ARK's construction reached him he immediately had ordered the construction of a more powerful warship and named it the Nemesis. It still required some fine tuning but he was confident that it would be ready to follow the Autobots' ship in a few stellar cycles. Of course he would not destroy the ship right away, that would be wasteful since there was a possibility Prime would find a source of enrgon and if so he would make that source his own.
For a moment he simply stood there until right on time his com link beeped indicating a message from Soundwave. Activating it he waited to hear who his loyal servant had picked to accompany him on this mission of destruction.
"Megatron, your strike force has been assembled. Decepticons Thundercracker, Thrust, Ramjet, Starscream and Dirge await you at the hanger bay." Soundwave declared in his usual monotone voice.
Good choices my loyal friend! Megatron thought to himself as he stroked his chin slightly.
Soundwave had quite skillfully assembled a group compose of primarily his most loyal supporters and his most questionable soldiers. Add that to the fact that the supporters outnumbered the potential traitors and he had little to worry about concerning his safety. The mission would undoubtably go according to plan and he would reap the benefits of silenced opposition as well as a suicidal level of support from the whole group. Still to add a crowning bit of attention to himself at the conclusion of the battle it would have to to be him alone who would destroy the leader of the convoy. It would prevent the others from getting a swelled cranium about the kill and would cause that much more pain in Optimus Prime when he learned of the fate of his convoy.
Ahhhh! Today is a good day for destruction! Megatron thought to himself as he left the room.
A few moments later laughter could be heard echoing down the hallway.
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Sewage Gutters, Cybertron, Twenty cycles(minutes) Later
"Pretty quiet out there, eh Blaster?" Nightshade asked quietly as she made a slight alteration in her navigation of the gutters.
"Yeah, you getting the same 'it's a little too quiet' feeling I am?" Blaster asked wryly in response.
"I think we all are Blaster." , replied Nightshade grimly as she did another passive sensor sweep of the immediate area, "I find it hard to believe that we've gotten this far without running into a single patrol, Autobot or Decepticon. Was security always this relaxed here on Cybertron?"
"At the time femme both sides were so low on fuel that patrols by 'bots were kept down to a minimum and guard duty was given to sensor arrays." , Blaster replied as his voice tone lightened as he remembered better days, "Still I know what you mean about the lack of contact, there should be a patrol going by this area right now."
That bit of information only increased Nightshade's unease by the lack of activity that her sensors were detecting on passive mode. She might be able to pick up something more if she intensified the sweep and increased the radius but that would make them pretty noticeable to any 'bots in the area other than them. That was something that she was sure Commander Jazz would want to avoid at all cost but that didn't mean she had to like it. She hated being blind like this, limiting herself for the sake of stealth, when the enemy could be all around her just waiting for the right moment to strike. If it wasn't for the importance of this mission she would just go right ahead and disobey the sensor silence order since she would probably just get a reprimand for it later. She might still do it anyway, after all they were reaching the edge of Decepticon territory and after that it was just a few short clics to Iacon. The question 'what could happen?' sprang up into her mind and was responded to with a 'plenty you impatient rookie!'.
"Commander? Permission to do a ten second high level sensor sweep of the area?" Nightshade asked over the 'bot-to-'bot comm-link.
"Negative Nightshade! We are to maintain strict sensor silence the entire way to Iacon City!" Jazz replied harshly since radio silence was risky even this close together.
"Sir! I respectfully request again to conduct a ten second sensor sweep", Nightshade said with significant stubbornness, "We have had no contact whatsoever with either side since we got on this tinfoil ball! Doesn't that strike you as being a little out of the ordinary!?"
"Not necessarily, we may have just missed them as we came by their patrol areas." , Jazz replied in a slightly calmer tone since he noted that anything else would just provoke Nightshade more, "Besides this is what command was hoping for, a smooth uninterrupted trip all the way to Iacon."
"Hoping will get you scrapped more often than not and as for your excuse it ain't worth a bucket o' slag!" Nightshade stated firmly before waiting to see what his reply would be.
As a rule she tried not to buck authority figures too much since it generally caused major flak to fall down on top of her. Still when she wanted one of her commanding officers to know that she didn't agree with his or her orders she let them know it right away and didn't back off until they had been explained to her satisfaction. In this case however it was a simple case of her believing completely that a sensor scan was necessary and not willing to give up until she received permission. Still, it would be up to Jazz to decide whether or not denying her again was worth another few cycles of argument.
"Fine! Just make it quick." Jazz replied as he severed the comm-link.
Satisfied that she had won this battle she brought her sensor grid control protocols online and immediately switched from passive to aggressive on the intensity scale. For a little while it seemed as though her paranoia was unjustified and that there really was nothing out there to be worried about. The seconds ticked away and just as the timer was about to hit ten she got contact on a level she hadn't bargained for. At first she only saw one Decepticon energy signature on her screen but then that became three and after that seven blips were registering on her sensors. Normally that would not be enough to cause her worry, after all the range of her sensors were much better then the Decepticon norm in this time period and so the chances her scan had been detected was pretty low. The reason she was prepping for battle readiness was because unless there was a bug in her systems directory the squad of Decepticons was on an intercept course and gaining fast.
"Commander! I've got seven marks coming in on an intercept vector, estimate time to contact to be two cycles!" Nightshade declared to everyone on comm-link.
"Slag! How did they spot us!?" Jazz asked in frustration as everyone began to power up their weapon systems.
Almost in response to his question laser fire began to rain down on them from above causing them to scatter in order to avoid the blasts. Focusing her external cams skyward she found the source of their imminent misery flying above them firing random blasts down at them. She cursed herself for not anticipating that the Decepticons would have a stealth rigged operative like Laserbeak patrolling the more likely routes of travel for secret convoys. Believing that their cover was pretty much blown she immediately transformed and rolled into a battle crouch before pulling her particle blasters out of sub-space. She immediately smothered the avian 'Con with a barrage of blasts forcing it to break off it's attack and thus giving Jazz and the others time to establish their own positions. Not that it was going to do them much good in the long run, there was no way they could make it to Autobot territory much less Iacon before they were intercepted. Add that to the fact that attracting the attention of the Autobots would only compound the disaster rather then remove it and you had one rust pile of a situation.
Looking around at the others she tried to get an idea of what they had to work with. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were both taking cover behind a pile of waste barrels near the gutter while Jazz and Blur standing ready on the opposite side of the sewage gutter using the groove's edges for cover. That just left her and Blaster crouching pretty much out in the open which meant that they would probably be the focus of most of the Decepticons blasts. Hopefully those that had been dispatched were the lower level grunts and not the higher ups like Starscream or Soundwave. Things were fifty-fifty on that since she couldn't identify the members of the group that was less than a cycle away based on their energy signatures. Still given her luck in these type of situations Megatron himself would be leading the force approaching which meant they were all pretty much slag.
C'mon Nightshade! Keep talking like that and you will be slag! she thought to herself as she checked the power readings on her blasters.
Just then she began to pick up the group of 'Con's on approach and tried to make some sort of identification as to who they were up against. It was getting easier as the seconds passed but even she was hard pressed to make any definite identifications even at maximum magnification. Still she was pretty sure that most of them were fliers with only two others on jet packs which allowed them a certain amount of mobility since they would be limited to strafing runs. As for the two land based 'bots she was confident that those two would be manageable enough so long was they weren't too strong. Cycle by cycle and nano-click by nano-click the Decepticons got closer and eventually they came close enough for her to identify them.
"*Sigh* I hate it when I'm right!" she moaned to herself as her eyes locked onto the black fusion cannon mounted on the leader's arm.
Just as she had mentioned moments ago there was Megatron, leading the squad of Decepticons towards them and looking particularly sadistic today. For a moment she got a wicked case of mechanical deja vu as she remembered the painful last few moments back at the secret installation. It had been at that place of hope that the leader of the Decepticons had forced her to abandon her friends for the sake of the future. She closed her optics as she tried to push down the fresh pain she felt at the destruction of all she had known, all because that piece of slag up there wanted to be ruler of everything. Opening her eyes and looking up at the object of her pain and hatred she prayed that she would be able to cause him a slagload of pain before she went down. Smoothly she changed the position of her blaster so the first shot she fired would hit Mega-ego right in the chest plate.
"Nightshade, change places with Blurr!" Jazz ordered from his position against the wall of the sewage gutter.
"Why?" she asked as she tried to figure out what tactical advantage switching positions with Blurr would do concerning their current situation.
"Just *do* it!" Jazz ordered with a growl.
With a growl of frustration Nightshade got up from her stance and ran in Jazz's direction and gave Blurr a quick high five as they passed each other. It made no sense for Jazz to change her position, Blurr was faster with a blaster than her and could provide him with better cover fire. After all he was the only real important member of this group that was really indispensable when it came to the overall mission. It couldn't be some sort of on-the-mission test because it served to logical purpose since if they were successful their army wouldn't even exist anymore. Still he was the boss and she was just a lowly trooper whose job was simply to obey orders and live with the consequences. Jumping down into the gutter with Jazz she discovered that she had done so just in time since just as her head disappeared below the edge three laser blasts flew by and struck the other side of the gutter. Aiming straight up she waited patiently for the right moment and then just as her optics picked up the front end of one of the fliers she flicked the automatic switch on her blasters and fired. She raked the underside of the blue flier and smiled as she heard Thundercracker's familiar scream of pain.
She tried to nail another two before they got out of effective range but only managed to give them a small amount of damage on their rear thrusters. With no further damage to be done she ducked back down under the cover the edge of the gutter provided to avoid the return fire that would surely be coming. All around them she could hear the sounds of the other members of the team fighting for their lives but with the forces that were pitted against them there wasn't much of a chance for victory. Not only were they almost outnumbered two to one but they were also sitting on one big energon mine that could be set off at any time by a stray blast from either side. Add to that their despicable excuses for cover and she knew that unless they did something fast they were all going to the scrap heap in a very unpleasant way. Turning to Jazz she could tell that he was thinking the same thing but judging by the frown on his face he hadn't had any luck thinking up a miracle to get themselves out of this mess. Not that she had any bright ideas either but he was the C.O of this little group which kinda obligated him to at least have the beginnings of a plan. After all they were supposed to be the best and brightest of the grunts since they would not have gotten the job if they were not. Shaking her head she knew she was not being fair to the old Autobot but quite frankly when her own spark was on the line it would help if the person in charge at least had two clues about how to do his job.
Firing off another round of blasts to the incoming flyers she turned to Jazz and said "Sir with all due respect we have to get out of here and I mean now!"
"Great idea Lt.! Any ideas how?!" asked with a slightly sarcastic tone in his audio synthesizer.
"Other then rolling out of here like Unicron himself was on out tailpipes? No I don't sir but we're gonna get slagged if we stay here any longer!" she replied as both of them ducked under the overhang of the ditch to avoid enemy fire.
"Wouldn't work femme, they'd cut us down like a bunch of mindless battle drones!" , Jazz stated as a yet unseen shadow seemed to come over his features, "There is only one way for us to get out of this one in one peace and survive long enough to complete the mission."
Without waiting for her to ask what he meant by that he took what looked like a flare cartridge out of a hidden compartment and fastened it onto the end of his blaster. Aiming it directly into the sky he briefly motioned her to cover her optics before firing it into the sky. This was good thing since about five seconds after it was launched the cartridge detonated and let loose a blinding strobe of light that bathed everything in the immediate vicinity in a bright blue light. Already she could hear the sounds of the Decepticons yelling and cursing in pain as their optics were temporarily overloaded rendering them completely blind. Nightshade almost smiled at the move but knew it would grant them only a few moments of reprieve before the Decepticons reinitialized their optics and then the shooting would start all over again. At the moment she was as blind as the decepticons with her optics currently shut down but the rest of her senses worked just fine which made Jazzes next order significantly more unbelievable.
"Nightshade! Transform an lock your grappling hook onto my bumper, I'll lead us out of this mess!" Jazz declared as he gripped her arm firmly which clearly stated that she had no real say in the matter.
Pushing aside her rising concern for the others she did as she was told, transforming into her redone vehicle mode and with only a little difficulty fastening her grappling hook onto his rear bumper. No sooner was this completed then they both took off with their accelerators never leaving the floor and the sensors completely focused in front of them. It killed her not being able to see or sense what was happening to the others but she prayed that they had possessed enough common sense in their micro-brained heads to take advantage of the flare and break wind out of there. After all it would be suicide to stay behind and try to fight Megatron and his posse just by themselves because even with ol' buckethead's crew temporarily blinded it would only be a matter of time before they were destroyed in a straight confrontation. Certain that her comrades were not the type to commit suicide she turned her attention away from them and focused more on what was ahead of her. They would soon be reaching the edge of the field of light created by Jazz's flare and then she would be able to get a better look at the situation than merely deducing it.
Once clear of the light she brought her optics back online and turned them in the direction of the flare to see if she could perceive who might be winning. With a little bit of luck she might be able to see the S brothers streaking out of the light just light she was with Blur and Blaster doing the same, leaving the Decepticons with nothing more than some moderate wounds and a rather humiliating defeat. Unfortunately that was not the case as all that she saw coming from the light were a few stray blasts from weapons fire and the odd yell from an angry Megatron. Still despite their tardiness she expected they would be coming out soon, after all they had a mission to complete and she knew that Sunstreaker wouldn't want to miss a chance to stand in the spotlight. Just then she saw a black shape begin to emerge from the light and for a brief moment felt a wellspring of joy as she waited for a familiar ally to appear. Unfortunately the joy soon turned to fear as an enemy rather than an ally appeared, an enemy that could very well mean the end of the mission right then and there.
Megatron.
"You won't get away from me that easily Autobot scum!!" declares Megatron as he took aim with his fusion cannon.
"Dodge and weave Jazz!" Nightshade yelled as she disengaged her grappling hook and peeled immediately to the right, barely managing to avoid being hit dead on by the powerful blast.
For the next few moments her concentration was consumed with trying to anticipate Megatron's next attack, pulling sharp turns and doubling back on her course so many times she was beginning to wonder if she was making any progress at all in getting to Iacon. Pulling up the data track map of Cybertron she saw that she was making virtually no progress at all, coming only meters closer to her goal instead of kilometers. Frustrated at this lack of accomplishment she looked back at the ball of light that confused and contained the other Decepticons and saw that it was beginning to fade. In a few more minutes Starscream and the others would be able to return to the battle and she would be right back where they had started from. Deciding that desperate times called for desperate measures she transformed into her flight mode and decided to take the fight to Megatron. She could hear a voice right in the back of her central processor telling her that this was suicide but right that moment she wasn't listening to that voice. Instead she was focusing on the voice that told her that unless she did this all the sacrifices she had made to get this far would be for nothing. The loss of Hot Rod, Angelfire, her very time for Primus' sake demanded that this mission succeed and she was not about to let some tin-headed dictator get in her way. Bringing her hood mounted laser gatling guns online she carefully took aim at her target, she would only get one chance at this. She was around sixty-five feet from Megatron when he decided to take his attention away from Jazz and focus it on her, bringing his fusion cannon to bear on her. She had to time this just right and pray she did not get vaped in the process of pulling off one of the most insane moves in resistance history.
"Foolish Autobot! Did you really think you could get the better of me?!" Megatron asked sarcastically as he casually braced his arm against the recoil he would receive from his fusion cannon.
NOW! she yelled to herself as she immediately cut her engines and Megatron fired his most powerful weapon.
The seconds seemed to tick by as she dropped, seeing the powerful blast inch towards her at a pace that she knew was merely an illusion. Seconds seemed light minutes as she used her forward maneuvering thrusters to push the front of her body upwards, never losing her targeting site on her target. Then, just as it seemed she was hesitating she opened fire and shot a full five second volley from her guns directly into Megatron's chest plate at point-blank range. His pain filled scream were music to her audio receptors as she ignited her primary engines and flew towards Jazz who was not even waiting for her to join him. Keeping one rear camera on Megatron she hastened her pace towards her commanding officer, hoping that they would be able to get out of sight before a counter-attack by the Decepticons could be attempted. Megatron wouldn't be firing any time soon but in the time it had taken her to deal with Megatron the flare's light had dimmed even more. It would now be mere seconds before it disappeared completely and the attack would resume with her team perhaps being at an even greater disadvantage than before. Looking at Jazz she could tell that he wasn't giving the other members of the team a second thought but was rather consumed with simply putting as much distance between himself and the Decepticons as possible.
"Commander! What about the others?" she asked with a tone in her voice that demanded an answer to her inquiry.
"Don't worry Lieutenant, they were told what to do if something like this came up." , Jazz replied as he continued to race along in the general direction of Iacon, "Just keep your throttle up and focus on getting to Iacon in one piece!"
Nightshade frowned in distaste at the order but reluctantly agreed that their mission was the priority here rather than her teammates. Besides the commander had said that the others had a getaway planned in case the 'Cons caught up with them so she was sure that she would see Sunstreaker and the others later at Wheeljack's lab. Pouring on the speed as ordered she kept most of her attention on the destination ahead but still kept at least one of her rear camera's on the rest of the team in the hopes that she would be able to confirm that they had gotten away. For about three minutes it looked like everything was going to work out just fine but then she saw Megatron turning towards them and raising his fusion cannon towards them. For the most part the odds were against Megatron actually hitting them at all since his cannon was designed for short range firing rather than long range shots but it still motivated her to push her engines a little harder. As the seconds ticked by she waited for the sounds of the blast that would come and possibly slam into her and cause her to crash to the ground in excruciating pain. She prayed that at least she wouldn't die in vain and that Jazz would be able to accomplish the mission because in the end analysis that was the only thing that mattered. After all the success of the mission was the only thing that could make all of the sacrifices she had made so far seem worth it and she'd be damned if she'd let anything get in the way of making this a success.
Unfortunately she was about to find out the hard way that challenging Fate was never a wise thing to do.
Looking down at the remaining Autobots writhing in pain one would think that Megatron would be pleased that he had been successful in stopping a group of his hated enemies from getting away. Unfortunately this was not the case because the transformer that Megatron had the most reason to hate at that moment was not among the pile of barely functioning Autobots. Scanning the immediate area it didn't take him long to spot the two metal shapes racing away from the scene towards Iacon with the focus of his anger bringing up the rear. His anger soared for a brief moment as he touched the blackened holes in his chest plate that the female Autobot had made moments earlier. He was not seriously damaged but to think that a inferior weakling of an Autobot had outfought him and was now racing away to tell her comrades how she had humiliated him was infuriating. With determination in his eyes he raised his fusion cannon and took aim at the retreating form of the symbol of his rage, certain that he would not miss.
"No one defies Megatron and lives Autobot!" , he declared with a sadistic smile, "Give my regards to the Inferno!"
"G-give t-them yourself….. buckethead!" came a cracked voice behind him.
Turning to see which of the defeated Autobots had the gall to interrupt him in his moment of revenge his eyes grew wide in surprise. One Autobot who seemed of a similar configuration to Soundwave was looking at him with a victorious smile on his face and one need only look at what he was holding in his right hand to see why. In half a second all thoughts about revenge disappeared from Megatron's mind as he immediately began to run away as fast as his feet could carry him. He cursed the female Autobot one final time as her attack had done him the inconvenience of disabling his jet pack and thus depriving him of the quickest means of escape. Behind him he could hear the rest of his troops issuing similar exclamations of surprise as they tried to escape what was coming.
Unfortunately as the last few remaining seconds of life ticked away his body went slack and his grip on the thermal grenade gave way allowing the device to fulfill it's singular purpose.
Nightshade was surprised when she saw all the 'Cons suddenly turn tail and run away from the scene of the battle but that surprise quickly turned to horror as a large explosion exploded outwards. The flames expanded in every direction, engulfing everyone in it's path in a cloud of ignited plasma and leaving no doubt as to it's strength. The explosion however was not what claimed her attention at that moment but rather the prone warriors that she knew had been at the center of that blast when it had gone off. She couldn't believe what she had just seen, Jazz had just moments earlier that they had an escape plan all worked out just in case something like this were to happen. What had gone wrong? Had the 'Cons decided to end things quickly and just blow the others up or had Blurr's quick hands slipped up and dropped a thermal grenade? So many questions were rolling around in her mind that she almost didn't notice the sudden increase in heat all of a sudden. Looking immediately in the direction she felt that the heat was coming from she was suddenly struck with fear as she saw an avalanche of hungry fire roaring towards her at an incredible rate of speed.
Where the slaggin' hell did that come from? , she thought for a moment before she remembered what had happened and where they were right now, Oh slag!
With this though she began to push her rockets past their tolerances in the hopes of gaining more speed with which to avoid being engulfed in a fiery painful death. It didn't matter that deep down she knew her chances of outrunning the flames were practically nil, all she knew was that if she did not get the lead out she was going to be one well-done transformer. Racing along as fast as she was she could already hear just about every warning beep her body had screaming at her and telling her that she was pushing her body too hard. Her engine was just about five cycles away from overheating and she could already feel the sides of her jets beginning to turn red due to the heat. Despite these warnings she kept pushing her engine harder, trying to squeeze every last bit of speed she could out of them on the slim chance that she might be able to make it out of this predicament in one piece with all parts intact. Unfortunately for her there was an all consuming ball of flame charging up behind her that seemed as determined as ever to swallow her whole whether she wanted to be eaten or not. Up ahead of her she could see that Jazz was working just as hard to try and keep ahead of the blast but at the same time keep close enough to lend a hand if she needed it.
"Nightshade! You're going to overheat if you keep pushing your engines this hard!" , Jazz yelled at her over the com-link, "Attach your grappling hook to my rear bumper and I'll take some of the strain off!"
Seeing that such an order made some sense she did as she was told and fired her grappling hook which had the good fortune of latching onto Jazz on the first try. Once this was done Jazz began to speed up, adding his power to her own, and taking a fair bit of the pressure off her systems. Oh there were still a multitude of warning beeps echoing inside of her but at least now they were not telling her that she was about to implode due to the strain. That however did little to comfort her as she could see and feel the flaming acidic waste flying towards them and gaining inch by inch as the seconds passed. Even with Jazz's superior engine power and experience their chances of getting out of this alive seemed to be disappearing about as fast as the unlit waste in the ditch was. Frantically she scanned the are with her sensors, looking for something that could save them both from a fiery death out in the middle of no where. Unfortunately being out in the middle of no where generally meant that there was nothing at all and thus the chances of finding anything useful was practically nil. As the flames got closer and closer she could feel the special coating Rachet had put on her to protect her from the acidic fumes of the sewer waste beginning to melt and drip off onto the ground. For all intents and purposes it looked like she was going to find out if transformers who died really did join one massive spark in the great beyond. Too bad she wasn't going to be able to come back to tell anyone about it.
"We're not going to make it!!" she exclaimed with fear beginning to creep into her usually professional tone of voice.
For a moment Jazz said nothing, as if he were pondering some great manner of importance and had to weigh the variables fully before coming to a decision. Then almost without warning his propulsion jets began to burn hotter and harder than they had the entire mission with no sign of stopping at all. Nightshade was at a loss for what her commander was doing, worried that the failure of the mission and his own impending doom had finally crashed his primary systems causing him to go completely random. Not that she could entirely blame him since her core systems weren't very far from going there either but still she never expected someone with as many years of experience in battle to go like this. Just then her com-link came online with the monitor indicating that the signal was coming from Jazz but also that nothing was coming through.
Then that changed as Jazz said, "Looks like this is it Nightshade. I just want you to know that I've always been proud to have you in my squad."
"What are yo….!?" Nightshade began to ask but then it clicked in her mind what was about to happen.
Sadly she would have no time to act as half a second later Jazz transformed before her and after grabbing hold of her grappling line slung her high and far into star filled sky. For a moment she simply allowed herself to go limp as she processed what Jazz had just done and what it had cost him in the process. By pushing both of their propulsion engines past safety tolerances they had accelerated to speeds common only to those transformers with flying modes. Unfortunately that was mostly because only flyers were outfitted with special components that could handle the strain and when most land based transformers attempted to reach these speeds their engines usually gave out due to the strain. Even if she and Jazz had been able to maintain that level of acceleration neither of them alone would have been able to outrun the flames that had been coming up behind them. Thus by pushing his engines past any reasonable levels and then slinging her over his shoulder like that he was more or less transferring the speed he had managed to generate to her and giving her twice the acceleration she had possessed before.
B-b-but by giving me his speed he's virtually at a complete stop! , she thought to herself in a stunned frame of mind, There's no way he can build up enough speed to beat the heat wave now!
Looking down at the transformer who had quite possibly saved her life she could see a calm resignation on his face, a kind of acceptance that this was the end and that he had no regrets about the choices he had made. Jazz looked up at her and with a smile gave her a thumbs up before the flames engulfed him causing him to disappear from view. She stared down in shock at what had just happened and even though her heart fought to reject the thought she knew in her mind that she was now alone. She, Lt. Nightshade of the resistance cell phoenix, was now the sole survivor of the team of transformers sent to change history for the better. One by one the faces of her teammates drifted by her optics, memories of the good times that they had experienced together and the tragedies they had all endured. Her spark ached as each of them passed by, flickering in pain knowing that she would never hear Blurr's rapid fire talking again or listen to one of the S brothers complain about a scratch on their paint job. All of them were gone and it was almost more than she could bear, her heart cried out to be allowed to join them on the other side and embrace the darkness herself. It must have been a stroke of luck because with the ferocity of a plasma storm fate seemed to grant her the request as all at once the wall of flame slammed into her back with the force of a decepticon battle fleet. All about her the flames licked and scorched her body, melting the colors from her body and beginning to turn the metal that made up her armor a bright and almost glowing red. She was only cognizant of these facts on a peripheral level for at that time all she could think and all she could feel was pain. Only once before had she ever felt such pain engulf her being and she had thought at the time with absolute certainty that she would never have to worry about feeling it again.
M-m-man, I h-hate being wrong!! Nightshade thought to herself, exerting as much effort in forming it as a Decepticon would be required to use to tell the whole truth.
Little by little she could feel the metal being torn from her frame as the material began to warp, melt and otherwise lose it's hold on her inner structure. They were like leaves being blown from a branch during a terrible storm, leaving their hope with no chance for returning or even finding a new one. Those that remained provided poor protection against the heat for her internal components that they had been designed and meant to protect. It felt as though some Decepticon foe that she had faced in the past was pouring hydrochloric acid into her shell in zero-G gravity for it did not move swiftly in one direction but rather seemed to linger in some places for longer periods of time. She knew in some vague sense that this merely meant that they were encountering the special forms of protection that kept her key systems relatively protected. Those guarding seals would not last long though against this searing heat, sooner or later they would surrender and her spark would be extinguished before she even realized what had happened to it. All that would remain of her in this wasteland would be a blackened, melted husk with absolutely no resemblance to anything that could have been called living. In the end one of two things would happen, she would either be used for scrap metal or she would be buried underneath other warriors who met their end here. In both cases no one would stop to consider who she might have been, what her mission had been or that if she had only survived they might have an entirely new future to create. She would merely be forgotten and the hopes of all those she had left behind, all those who had been counting on her would have been in vain.
All of a sudden the unbearable heat which she had almost come to accept as a constant for her few remaining moments of life disappeared and in it's place there was an empty void completely lacking in sensation. Nightshade though was given no free moment to contemplate her new state of existence as she immediately came into contact with something hard and immovable which blocked her current flight path. She came to know this not via any information her systems would usually be providing her but rather from the way all her thoughts seemed to fly into disarray with a suddenness that could only be good ol' terra firma. For who knows how long her mind was a useless jumble of information, nothing coherent nor understandable, which made it impossible to form anything resembling thought or purpose. It wasn't until one image flashed across her field of perception, an image of Jazz giving her the thumbs up, that what remained of her consciousness began to fight to piece her mind back together. He had entrusted to her the fate of the future and she was not going to let something as temporary as a systems glitch stop her from completing her mission. However for all her effort and all her determination she just could not seem to bring her mind completely back into coherent focus. Instead her efforts seemed only to make things even worse, causing things to fall into even greater disarray than it had been in before.
T-this calls … for a … new approach Nightshade thought to herself with some frustration as she ceased her attempts to recompile her mind.
Thus instead of attempting to bring her entire mind into focus she tried to bring only two or three portions into order, hoping that through them she could get the rest into some semblance of working order. She would have cheered if she had been able as she watched the sections she had chosen slowly begin to come into focus and order. It took almost every ounce of will she had to complete her task but eventually the systems she had selected were back in some semblance of working order. Unfortunately it was not a pleasant sight which greeted her but she convinced herself somehow that she could work with this mess and that there was still some hope left worth holding onto for a little while longer. However whatever she planned to do had to be done quickly because with every passing second all three systems were beginning to degrade. If she did not act soon what little chance she had for survival would be snuffed out and all that would be left for her to do was to lay there and die.
B-better g-get started then. , she thought to herself she forced her systems to accept her decision, Nanobot repair systems online. Reconstruction of key systems commence … Now!!
With that she surrendered herself to the blackness of unconsciousness and awaited her onboard computer's signal that the task was completed.