Chapter Ten – The Search For Energy
Wheeljack and Huffer continue to work on Telatran One back inside the Autobot ship called The Ark, finally they finish up and prepare to restart the computer again. As Huffer rises up from the console he just finished repaired, he looks over to the far side of the room and sees Wheeljack closing his massive console panel as well.
"Well that's it...Telatran One is back online and running smooth again." Wheeljack proclaims, "Now...time to wake this computer up and figure out where everyone is."
Huffer rubs his forehead and sighs relief, "Thank goodness, I was about to go haywire from all this hard work. I hope you fixed everything correctly Wheeljack."
Wheeljack laughs, "We'll soon find out lil' buddy. Hit the restart will ya?"
Huffer walks over to the main controls and presses the large square button Wheeljack was talking about. As soon as he hit it, a massive power surge within the computer itself forcefully ejected Ravage who was still lodged inside. The minidisk spy whimpered from the blast Telatran One gave to the Decepticon and quickly transformed beyond Huffer's head as he went flying out. Huffer was caught off guard by the Decepticon cat's appearance, he stood there speechless as Ravage leaped across and began running out the bridge door behind him. Wheeljack saw everything happen and quickly shouted to Huffer.
"Ravage!! Huffer! Just don't stand there like a lummox! Go after him!!"
Huffer snapped out of his stupor transforming quickly into his orange truck cab mode, he was smaller in design to Optimus Prime and had a few minor differences in the way his truck form looked. Still he one advantage to being smaller, he was faster and without a back trailer lumbering behind him, he could easily catch up to the fleeing Decepticon. Still Ravage sprinted fast down the long ship corridor and looked back every now and then to see how far he was being followed. The flashing red lights and the blaring alarms filled the ship in every corridor and room, booming in the background was Telatran One's voice alerting all throughout the vessel there was a Decepticon intruder. As Ravage went rushing by, a door opened on the sidewall and out stepped Trailbreaker, the bulky looking black and chromed robot caught a quick glimpse of the intruder and looked confused as to what was happening. Huffer saw Trailbreaker standing there and shouted out to him as he was trying to stop the fast black cat.
"Don't let him get away Trailbreaker! It's Ravage!!"
The large black Autobot didn't even have to think twice, he ran down the hall and saw the Decepticon almost reaching the open bay door leading outside.
"Oh no you don't...time to block your only way out!"
The minute he finished saying that, his shoulder mounted chrome-looking device shot out a massive energy pulse that streaked over to the large doorway and covered the whole thing in it's electric plasma green glow. Ravage hit this strange pulsating energy and bounced off of it like a rubber wall. Trailbreaker laughed at the bouncing kitty as he watched it repeatedly trying to break through it, his running became a slow walk as he approached the frantic Decepticon. Huffer finally reached them both and quickly transformed into his robot mode again, he took out his gun from a panel opening behind his back and pointed it at the intruder.
"Don't you move a muscle Ravage...I got my blaster aimed straight at your head! Just give me a reason to blow it clean off!"
The black cat stopped in its tracks and stood there growling at the two Autobots, Trailbreaker used his arm cannon to launch a energon cage and trap the Decepticon in its place. Most transformers have arms that are built in cannons, often they come in handy when there's no hand weapon to be found, instead of having a regular arm and hand they have a large blaster arm that channels from their power directly. Trailbreaker manages to use it for mainly making force fields or a last resort when no other weapon is available; a master at creating them, force fields are his specialty. Now that Ravage is caught, his energy force field surrounding the large main door dissipates as the time collapses of its use.
"There we go...one black cat, never to trouble our path again. Good thing I stayed behind."
Huffer looks up at him confused, "Hey ya...where the heck were you? I could have joined the others if I'd known you were still here. Weren't you in the line up? "
"Nope...I asked Optimus to let me finish making repairs to the sick bay incase they need it. I'm more wondering where Mirage is...haven't seen him for a long time either."
Huffer lets out a snicker, "I'll bet he's looking for a new place to live. I don't trust that guy...on one hand he wants to stop Megatron and the Decepticons, but on the other, he doesn't want to fight anymore. Sounds like a pure coward if you ask me."
"Yeah..." the big bulky black robot sighs, "Although he's a good guy, saved my hide a few times during the war...just not much of a fighter I think. I've heard him ramble on about the good ol' days of Cybertron, when he was just a courier racing back and forth between cities. Remember Huffer, not all of us were born warriors you know. Just give the guy a break and he'll prove his worth to the team..."
"Whatever Trailbreaker.... I'll believe it when I see it."
Suddenly Optimus Prime's voice is heard over their built in radio receivers, they all hold up their hands to their heads to activate their transceivers.
"Optimus to base! Optimus to base! "
Trailbreaker responds to the leader by talking back with his built in microphone inside his head, "Base to Prime...this is Trailbreaker, we're receiving you Optimus Prime, over."
"Trailbreaker...prepare that sick bay and get ready for human casualties. Tell Huffer and Wheeljack to finish fixing Telatran One as soon as possible!"
Huffer opens a comm-link to the Autobot leader, "This is Huffer Prime.... we've finished repairs and T-1 is A-OK again!"
"Good work Huffer, as soon as we arrive I want all personnel to assemble in the bridge. It's time we figure out what our next plan of attack will be."
Huffer grins and joyfully confirms back to him, "You got it Prime! Huffer out!"
Outside, down in the valley heading towards the mountain where the ship lays, Optimus Prime and the other race up the road heading for it. The human army follows closely behind as they bring their wounded back to Autobot headquarters, some of the trucks pull off and stay down near the campsite already set up from last time. The larger trucks head up with the Autobots as they all begin to move into the ship. As Prowl and Cliffjumper pass in their car forms, Trailbreaker uses his force field cannon arm to move the trapped Decepticon aside. Still not able to get out of it, Ravage continually claws at the energon mesh cage in a hopeless attempt to break free. As the others continue to head deeper into the ship, Cliffjumper and Prowl transform and walk over to Trailbreaker and his catch of the day.
"Well, well, well...", Cliffjumper states, "Looks like our main man here bagged himself a kitty cat."
Prowl laughs, "Yeah...funny I don't remember seeing you out there fighting them though?"
Trailbreaker scoffs at Prowls stupid remark, "That's funny, I could have sworn you were supposed to be the security chief of this place. This spy got in here without us knowing about it."
Prowl seemed taken back by that remark, he knew that if Kup had seen that happen he'd be in trouble big time. Indeed he did fail on carefully searching Bumblebee and the others when they came back, something that he's not proud of and something that Kup would look down on him about. Without even saying anymore, Prowl turned around and walked down the corridor to the bridge like a grumpy kid. It was a blow to his professional ego, a small spy getting past all of them was a major security breach, in his mind, he could hear Kup scolding him out for such a lackluster performance. It was time for him to get serious about improving security around the ship, it was time for him to prove that he could be as good as Kup ever was and it was time for him to get to work.
The General and his wounded soldiers drove into the Autobot sick bay and began to set up a makeshift hospital for themselves. Ratchet drove in and stopped near one of the metallic beds the Autobots usually rest upon when injured themselves. He opened the top of his roof and raised the critical injured army men onto the cold hard surface of the bed. Like a large crane, his inner robotic hoist placed them up onto the bed as gently as he could. Once they were placed there, he quickly transformed and examined their wounds. Ratchet by no means a human medical expert, with very little time to study human anatomy he resorted to asking Telatran One for assistance.
"Telatran One are you online?"
"Affirmative", the computerized voice spoke out of nowhere.
"Scan the humans for damage and recall any treatment information.", the worried robotic doctor instructed.
"Scanning...", the computer quickly responded.
A large blue light beamed out over head the humans lying there, it was a fine light source almost like a soft laser beam, and it passed over the humans both horizontally and vertically. As quick as the beam appeared it soon turned off and the computer gave it's analysis.
"Humans are suffering multiple factures of various bone structures, vital organs are on the brink of failure and blood loss is occurring rapidly. Recommend immediate surgical reconstruction based on human practices."
Ratchet sighed and soon realized the men were dying, he'd have to learn how to operate on these humans and quick. The General walked over to the large medical Autobot and saw that it was struggling to figure out how to proceed.
"Ratchet...do you need help? I could always call for one of our doctors to come.", the General says to him.
Ratchet shakes his head, "No, that's ok General. These men need treatment fast...but thanks for your concern. Telatran One...this is a medical priority, I need the information on human surgical repairs and all knowledge of human anatomy..."
The computer grants his request, "Affirmative, voice priority recognized. Downloading all information on Earth human surgeries and procedures."
The blue beam of light re-appears and aims itself directly at the medical robot's head. Ratchet stands there downloading all the information as the beam sends it directly into his brain; the glow in his blue eyes flutters as the General stands there watching this robot learn everything about human medical operations. It seemed incredible to him that this robot could become a master human surgeon in the matter of seconds. The light source turned off again and Ratchet snapped out of his downloading stupor. He looked down at the human patients and began prepping them for surgery. Looking down at the General he smiled and gave him a nod of reassurance.
"Don't worry General...I know what I'm supposed to do now. If you'd like, you can be my nurse...I'll need some help and some blood."
"I'm on it.", the man smiles back.
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As the Decepticons prepare to move out to the various energy locations, Megatron stares at the human/alien hybrid vehicle. He reaches down and yanks the double-barreled cannon off of the transport back; Starscream wanders over and looks at it with his evil leader.
"This weapon managed to take out a Decepticon...", Megatron thought out loud, "Such primitive beings...and yet...such advanced and almost familiar technology."
Starscream stared at it as his leader clutched it in his grasp, "It does seems strangely recognizable...I'm almost certain I've seen that design somewhere before. Where did they acquire it I wonder?"
"I'd ask one of our prisoners...but something in my internal power source that they wouldn't have a clue. Hmm...No, there's someone else building these things, someone that is meddling with technology they know nothing about." Megatron says to the curious air commander.
Looking at it one more time, he simply grimaces and chucks it back onto the ground. The weapons smacks back on top of the transport vehicle and crushes it even more. Soundwave casually approaches Megatron and salutes him.
"We are ready to proceed Megatron!" the blue robot says in his monotone voice.
"Very good Soundwave, We'll start with a few oil refineries and work our way over to Sherman Dam. Tell the Constructicons to keep working and monitor the human prisoners, I don't want our...guests fleeing our sights before the ship is built!"
Soundwave salutes him again and walks over to the Constructicons still working on the ship. They are very swift and diligent workers, already using the surrounding metal left over from the human machines and weapons, they've managed to build the ship's lower framework and some of its engines. As the evil leader is about to step away from the transport debris, Starscream voices his concern.
"Wait! What about this weapon? Surely we must investigate this matter further, what if they build another one just like it?"
Megatron shakes his head and snickers, "Ah Starscream...you worry too much about such minor things. By the time we've built this ship and taken all the energy back with us, the matter will be moot. If you fear the humans so much...then please go and surrender yourself and be done of this spineless whimpering!"
"I'm not spineless Megatron..." the Decepticon scowls at him.
The leader laughs, "Of course not.... that's why you hid behind me when they attacked you."
Starscream clenched his fist and snarled at the evil leader, "I did no such thing.... I...I was just making sure I wasn't hogging all the glory away from you."
"Naturally." Megatron smiled as if he knew the lie to be as stupid as his air commander.
The leader then stood out in the open and looked at all of his warriors, he raised his arms in the air and shouted out to them all.
"Decepticons! Let us begin our hunt for Energon!!"
All of the various Decepticon soldiers cheered and watched their leader fly up into the sky. They too launched upward with him and made their way to the locations Soundwave had suggested. Starscream took one last look at the human/alien weapon lying there and gave a look of doubt. Humans had managed to bruise him and that concerned him a lot. But since Megatron wasn't too concerned about it, then it probably wasn't a big a deal as he had thought. He lifted himself off the ground and flew upwards to catch up with the rest of the group; he transformed into his super sonic F-19 jet mode and let his thrusters kick in.
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The Autobots stood all around the bridge of The Ark, Optimus Prime paced back and forth as they all looked on and watched him do so. Carly, Spike and Sparkplug all stood off to the side where the Autobot leader was walking and also watched him as he mulled over their next plan of action.
"Megatron won't stay put in that area for long. He'll need energon in order to leave this planet, so that begs the question, where will he strike?"
Sparkplug rubs his back neck, "Anywhere he wants it seems...man, I think he's got his choice around the world. There all sorts of places to go...there's oil fields, gas depots, hydroelectric plants..."
Prime stops in his tracks and sighs, "Yes...this world is a feeding frenzy for his appetite. Hmm...Still, he'd want to stay near the area, I know him too well. His ship under construction is close by and he won't want to stray too far incase we try to attack the site again. He'll undoubtedly try to attack anything near by that can produce large quantities of energy."
Hound taps his head in thought, "Well that might be the oil refineries...those are close by. But from what I've studied on them briefly, they don't seem to be enough for his ship, his men and Cybertron."
Jazz folds his arms and shakes his head, "Man, we're wasting our time trying predict his next move. If we so much as even try to stop him he'll give the order to kill those human hostages, face it guys...he's got our sorry butts in a noose."
Cliffjumper stands up out of his chair, he was sitting in the command chair Prime would sit in during flight of the ship, but he leaps up and shakes his fists at them all.
"Megatron needs to be put out for good! I'm sorry to be the one to say this...but those humans shouldn't have gotten in the way! I say we take our chances and take those Decepticons down!!"
Trailbreaker stands over him and gives him a small jolt on the top of the screaming Autobot's head, "Aw, hush up you big hot head! We're not going to kill those humans just to satisfy your itch to kill Megatron, so pipe down."
Cliffjumper turns to the big black robot and takes a few swings at him, but since Trailbreaker is taller and bigger then him, he holds the small minibot's head in his hand while the little hot head tries to hit him.
"Oh yeah?! You want a piece of me too? Come on big boy...let's dance!!"
Optimus becomes furious at Cliffjumper and shouts at him, "Cliffjumper!! Enough!! Settle down or I'll have you in the lower regions of this ship scraping off the rock with nothing more then a thin pair of tweezers!!"
The mini red Autobot silenced immediately and sat back down into the chair like a scolded child would. Optimus regained his composure and looked around at the others, they all knew he was ticked off and didn't want to say anything else that might set him off again. Carly was too busy thinking of where the Decepticons would strike next to notice the small Autobot's ranting and suddenly realized of one location the evil leader might go.
"Dams..." She said quietly.
Spike standing right next to her looked over and realized she spoke, "I beg your pardon?"
She smiled at the young fair-haired boy and said it again, " Dams! Think about it Spike...Dams produce a lot of energy."
"But not the amount they're thinking of Carly. It wouldn't make any sense, why would he go for Dams when there are perfectly good nuclear plants all around."
Suddenly across the room, Wheeljack heard the two of them talking and shouted out to them both, "Nuclear plants have too much radiation..."
They both looked surprised that he could hear them from so far away, but as he walked into the middle of the room near where Prime was standing, he continued to talk about it.
"They'd have to do a lot of work to create a safe energy field in order to keep their own circuits from frying. But I like the idea you had about dams Carly, if they could some how increase the water flow and increase the pressure...the generators would be able to produce instant electrical jolt that would give them the energy needed."
Optimus Prime and the others listened to Wheeljack's theory, stood there thinking about the possibility and stroked his manifold chin.
"Hmmm...Sounds like Megatron's kind of angle. But how would he collect the energy surge? I'd doubt he'd ask his men to carry it all in their energy absorbers all that time."
Wheeljack thinks for a second and snaps his fingers as an idea pops in his head, "I've got it! During the war, there was talk of taking energon and compacting them into storage fields, sort of like taking the energy and crushing it down into tight wads of power. And since only Soundwave was the leader in that field of science...I'll bet he designed a way to store the energy into some sort of compact shell that would make it easier to put on their ship."
Huffer snickers, "Yeah right Wheeljack, I think that crash has struck your processors too much. Thats a load of cyberjunk if I ever heard it!"
Carly runs over to Wheeljack and starts to realize what he's talking about, "No...Wheeljack is right Huffer! It's kind of like dehydrating liquid into powdered crystal form and filling it into a container. It may not look like much in the powered form, but once it's re-hydrated it becomes twice the size of the container's volume. Compacted energy into lightweight containers..."
"Or..." Wheeljack adds in, "A stable force field that could contain it all. Making it very lightweight, but extremely unstable. If it gets dropped or the field collapses.... boom!"
Optimus Prime nods to them both for the helpful ideas, "Now we have a theory on how they'll collect it. Thank you. But if this is indeed how they will proceed, which dam will they target to do this?"
Prime walks over to the computer and taps on the oddly constructed keyboard in front of him.
"Telatran One...give me the location of any known dam in the area that is big enough to withstand a major flood or even a increase in water pressure. Specifically one that is within the distance to this ship and the Decepticon site."
The massive computer screen flickers and sifts though a various images of local dams, "Beginning search.... searching...."
As Telatran One scans for near by dams, Sparkplug turns around to see the General walking in through the bridge doors, he's using a blood spattered cloth to wipe his hands and shows some signs of fatigue. No longer wearing the green military suit jacket, he took it off to aid Ratchet as he operated on his men, now the clean white long sleeved shirt he wore underneath is smeared with blood as well. His sleeves rolled up and his black tie loosened gives him a more relaxed look, but after being in surgery for a while, he looks anything but relaxed. Sparkplug walks over and pats the man casually on the right arm.
"How's it going in there?", Sparkplug asks.
The General sighs as he continues to rub the blood off of his hands, "Its looking better then it was...Ratchet is doing a fine job, but he's unconfident about his skills as a surgeon...well...on humans anyway. Nevertheless I'm impressed with what he's done so far, his hands were moving faster then I could see, its incredible what these machines can do."
Sparkplug nods in agreement, "No argument here. These Autobots are truly something, they could have come in and taken over the entire world like the Decepticons, but instead choose to honor life wherever they find it. Such noble beings.... it really humbles our kind greatly."
"They've certainly humbled this stubborn old fool.", the General says in a somber tone, "I send men in to die and never give it a second thought, but Optimus Prime sends his in to save ours and deeply cares what happens to both kind. Rather then risk so many lives, he'll do what's honorable...how many of us can say the same?"
Sparkplug looks kindly onto him, "Don't beat yourself up too much General, we know you were only looking out for best interest. Sometimes it takes a defeat to humble a man and realize that he's only human, we all make mistakes, but we learn from them as well."
The old commander stares up at him and nods, "Yeah...we certainly do. And Sparkplug? You can call me Hank ok? But uhm...Don't tell the others I said you could."
The construction worker looked at him and started to smile, the brash military man gave him a wink and started to smile. Sparkplug slowly chuckled and so too did the General, the rare time anyone has seen a hard nosed man like that have any sort of genuine laughter. The two men shook hands and continued to giggle lightly. Suddenly, while the two men shared a friendly moment behind, Telatran One finally spoke out loud to Optimus Prime as it held an image of a dam on its monitor.
"Location found.", the computer said to Optimus who was sitting there patiently, "Sherman Dam is the closest water reserve within the specified parameters. It is a large water reserve capable of generating large amounts of electricity and well constructed to sustain any major flooding events."
Optimus Prime leaned in to have a closer look at the image on the screen; Telatran One scrolled all the vital information of its energy production, size and blueprints.
"Telatran One, theorize for me.... if the dam was modified to produce double or triple the amount of water pressure and produced a pure source of energy, would it be possible to store vast amounts into compressed sized energon modules?"
The computer thinks for a second and quickly responds with diagrams showing the possibility, "Affirmative, energy could be stored into compact force field energon modules, compressed energy would be stable for transport, but easily damaged if mishandled or fired at with an energy weapon."
Ironhide sitting there listening to it all jumped up from his spot and threw his arms out with clenched fists, "It's confirmed! Wheeljack was right; Megatron is planning to take enough energy to refuel the war back home! We've got to stop him right now Prime, not just for our sake but for the humans as well."
The Autobot leader turned around to face his men, "Yes Ironhide...I know. But with the human hostages in his grip...we dare not act. But.... I do have a plan..."
Sparkplug and General Hank walk over to hear it, as do Carly, Spike and the rest of the Autobot soldiers. They all encircle the leader as he tells them of his idea of what to do next.
"First off...we're going to that dam, we'll catch him in the act of surprise as they try to fill up on energon. But before we can move in...I'm going to send someone in to rescue the hostages at the same time. Hmm...Where's Mirage?"
Huffer laughs, "Mirage? He's probably driving clear across the planet by now...anything to get away from being a soldier."
Suddenly, a disembodied voice booms out from directly behind him, "That's what your think you orange hard head!"
As Huffer turns around the voice of the Autobot materializes in front of his eyes. A soft green hue of light outlines his whole body frame and then quickly turns into the blue and white robot that stands there smiling at him. Everyone is shocked to see him there, as far as anyone knew; Mirage wasn't even in the ship at all.
Optimus Prime walked over and folded his arms as he stood in front of him, "Welcome back, Mirage. I trust you carried out the mission I sent you on?"
The blue and white robot saluted the slightly taller Autobot leader, "Absolutely Prime. I did what you asked. I followed the human agents helicopters and located the base they went too. Not one of them spotted me...guess being invisible helps."
Prowl didn't seem to understand, "Prime? What's going on here? I thought for sure that Mirage ran out on us."
Mirage gave a chuckle at that comment, "No way! I'd never do that to you guys, besides I'm a better spy then a fighter...Kup told me that once."
"Indeed..." Optimus Prime said in a calm manner, "Now then, give me a report Mirage...what did you find out."
"I followed them as far as I could...out to some big long road that led into desert-mountain region, but before I could get close to where they set down, I detected some image scanners that would have shown me on thermals. Prime...some of those scanners were really advanced for this species, I mean...it's like they stole some of our level of technology cause I swear I've seen that type of imager before."
Prime nods at Mirage's discovery and pats him on the shoulder, "Good work. We'll have to deal with that issue at another time. Right now, I've got a new task for you."
Mirage straightens up, "Where to next Prime, I'm ready!"
"I need you to head out to the Decepticon site and rescue the humans. I'll have Prowl fill you in on the details and the location later, but you can't do this alone...I need another volunteer to help you."
Sparkplug raises his hand, "I'll do it Prime."
Prime shakes his head, "No Sparkplug...I need you and the General with us to help get the men out and put them within a safe distance. That goes for you too Spike...we might need you and your father to shut down the dam if the Autobots and I become too busy with the Decepticons. We'll distract them long enough for you to shut it all down."
Spike nods and Carly suddenly steps out at the massive robot leader, "How bout me then? I'll go with Mirage..."
Hound leans down at her, "It's dangerous Carly. I'll be the one to go with him."
Carly starts to get mad, "But the Autobots will need your help as well Hound. Let me go Optimus.... you need me too!"
Prime shakes his head, "I can't endanger your life too Carly...I think you'd help us more by staying behind and helping the soldiers recover."
Mad as hell, she stomps her foot and points at him while she shouts, "Listen Prime, I'm sick of being treated as just some weak lil' woman...every male I've encountered has treated me that way and I'm tired of it. I'm going to help Mirage, I'm going to free those hostages and there's nothing you can say that will stop me from going. Case Closed!!"
All the Autobots flinched as she stood there ripping into the leader, some were wide-eyed and in shock that she screamed at him. Prime didn't move a muscle as he looked at her, his eyes dimmed as she finished and raised his head over at Mirage. The blue and white Autobot simply shrugged his shoulders at the leader and laughed a bit.
"Wow...uhm...well...I guess that settled."
Suddenly, Telatran One beings to sound the alarms and flashes a red light on and off in the room. The sound and the light fill the entire place and the computer voice can be heard warning them.
"Alert! Alert! Decepticon activity detected!!"
Bluestreak runs over to the computer and looks on the monitor, "They're in one of the oil refineries Prime, diverting crude oil into energon. "
Prime looks over to him, "How many and how long?"
The Sliver/blue-ish robot taps on the Cybertronian keyboard and enters the results, "Looks like nearly all of them, at the rate they're draining that place...we've got like an hour or less till they move to the next target."
The Autobot leader's eyes flash a bright blue, "Sherman Dam will be next...we can't reach the refinery in time, but the dam will be the place we'll be waiting for him. Autobots! Prepare to move out!"
â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢ Out in the plains of an oil refinery depot, humans scramble to flee the area; some jump into their cars and trucks and bolt off like lightening. As they all randomly look back, they see the group of Decepticons firing their energy weapons at them. Blasting away, they scare them off like cattle; even the ones that try to stand their ground. Megatron swoops in and fires his black arm cannon at one of the buildings, the explosion sends debris everywhere and even causes a slight tremor from the impact. With the last group of humans fleeing for their lives the rest of the evil robot group land on the ground and help the others work. The Decepticons swarm the oil depot as they fill up the energon cubes that Soundwave provides for them. The energon cubes are produced out of the Minidisk transformer's chest, pinkish red in hue and looking more like empty outlined boxes. They continually pop out of Soundwave's chest mini disk loader window as each Decepticon grabs one and fills it up. Those that were filled instantly convert the matter into energon and cause the cube to glow with raw power. Megatron stands there watching it all with a great greedy pride; the beaming smile from his face shows his pleasure and chuckles to himself at the overwhelming spoils they're reaping from this planet. Starscream feels like wiping his brow from all the hard labor, he's not use to doing things himself, normally he assigns one of his own troops to do the dirty work for him, But now he's forced to do it because there isn't enough of them to pass it off to someone else. Skywarp walks up and places his cubes down on the ground next to Starscream's load, as Starscream mutters on about their leader.
"Look at him Skywarp...he doesn't even lift a finger to help us. Hmpft! I tell you...when we get back to Cybertron...I'm going to kill him and become the new ruler."
Skywarp whispers to Starscream carefully, "You'd better not talk like that Starscream, if Megatron hears that from you again he'll definitely rip out your guts just like he did to Jetplague."
The grey colored air commander laughs softly, "Jetplague was a weakling. I'm much more stronger and faster then he ever was...and I'm definitely smarter then Megatron over there. Stick with me my friend...I'll be made leader yet."
The black and purple Decepticon scoffs at him, "Yeah right...that's why you tremble in your booties every time he threatens you, eh Starscream?"
Rumble comes huffing and puffing over to them, he drops his load of energon cubes down and bends over like he's overdone his share of the workload. Catching his breath, he talks to the two Decepticon jets after eaves dropping on their conversation.
"You know Starscream.... Huff! Huff! ...If you did less chattin' and more work, we'd be done by now.", the mini robot says to him.
"I don't remember asking your opinion Rumble...so shut your trap!", Starscream says angrily.
Reflector, the tri-robot group, all walk over to the Decepticon leader and talk in unison.
"We're just about finished Megatron. "
Megatron nods, "Good. Any sign of the Autobots or the human military?"
"None that we can detect mighty leader. It appears they've kept their word. "
Megatron laughs, "Prime always does. That's what makes him such a pathetic fool, now that we have the humans as hostages, he'll do whatever I tell him to do."
As he looks out across the oil refinery, he sees his men are just finishing up filling the cubes and all walk over to the brightly glowing pile. Megatron also walks over to them all and picks up a cube to examine it closer.
"Success Decepticons! They look absolutely flawless, raw energon at its finest...now we must take them back to our temporary base and proceed to the next target."
Looking over at Thundercracker, Skywarp and Starscream, Megatron chucks one of the energon cubes at Thundercracker chuckles at him trying to catch it before it drops near them all. The light pale blue transformer grabs it and lets out a sigh of relief from not letting it fall at his feet.
"Nice catch Thundercracker...", Megatron snickers, "Now fill up your cargo hold and take those cubes back to the Constructicons. The rest of us will continue on to Sherman Dam and fill up more of these precious energon cubes."
Thundercracker nods and quickly transforms into his blue F-18 jet mode and opens up the top section of his body. Like a pair of cargo doors opening on the space shuttle, they swing open and reveal the large space that looks just about enough to hold all those cubes. Each Decepticon picks up a stack of glowing pinkish red cubes and place it inside of him. As they continue to fill his space up, Soundwave, who looks concerned about something, approaches Megatron. Megatron looks over to see the blue-silver robot staring up at the sky.
"What is it Soundwave?"
"We are being observed by a strange object in orbit of the planet.", he says to him in his monotone resonating voice.
Megatron looks up and squints with his eyes, "Yes.... I've noticed that before. We're being watched Soundwave, no doubt the humans are very curious beings. It is a dangerous quality I've discovered about them."
"It is of strange construction...I cannot identify most of its technology.", the yellow-eyed cycloptic robot says to the leader.
"Indeed...it must be almost like that vehicle they used. Technology they have no understanding of.... but yet...someone seems to know how to incorporate it into their own."
Soundwave nods in agreement and adds more information; "It has followed us since the battle and seems to remain focused on our every movement."
Megatron continues too look up at the small faint dot in the sky and glares at it, "I don't like being spied upon Soundwave, not even by creatures as dumb as these ones. They must be taught yet another lesson by us."
High above the Earth, the hybrid human-alien satellite gazes down at them, the half round black eye of the craft shimmers in the Earth's bright reflection. Elsewhere, deep within the bowls of Area 51, the mysterious shadowed figure monitors them as he sits in his large command chair. All that can be seen of him is his hands pressed together in a prayer like fashion; the large view screen in front of him shows Megatron staring directly at him.
"So...you see me do you?", the shadow covered human says, as if Megatron could hear him, "Interesting."
As he watches Megatron, he notices the robot transforming into his handgun mode and being placed into the hands of Soundwave who was standing next to him at the time. The shadowy man sits up in his chair as he witnesses the robot aim the hand weapon directly at the satellite. At the oil depot, Soundwave holds Megatron steady in his hand, the long shaft of the leader's black silencer barrel glistens in the sunlight as it takes aim. With one firm twitch of his finger, the Minidisk transformer fires the weapon and a large red streak of energy cannons out of it. As fast as lightening, the energy blast reaches the spy satellite and causes it to explode in a massive fireball. Some parts vaporize on impact and the rest ejects sporadically into pieces. What was once in space is no more. After the deed was done, Megatron re-transformed into his robotic mode again and gave an evil smirk as he stared up at the falling debris. The mysterious man stood in front of his many monitors, all hissing and showing nothing but static. Not one image was left on any of them; with his hybrid spy craft gone...there was nothing to view. Another man entered the room; Agent West once again walks over to him and pauses beside the shadowy man known only as N Leader.
"I take it...he discovered our presence?"
The N Leader nodded, "So it would seem. But not to worry West...we can always launch another one."
"Sir..." The Agent adds, "Drakemore is back and requesting his next mission."
The dark figure sighs, "Tell him to be on hold for now. I want to see how this will play itself out."
"I beg your pardon sir?" West asks astonished.
"I want to see how much damage the Autobots and Decepticons cause before I make my offer to the rest of the world. Once we have a public display of their destructive behavior...the world governments will increase their demand for the technology. Increased demands mean increased profits, once that has been established...we can terminate them completely and salvage the goods."
Agent West, rubs his right hand up into his dark hair and finally rests it on the back of his neck, "But...how will we achieve this sir? The only satellite we had in orbit is now...well...gone."
The N Leader giggles at the stupid question and paces in the room, "News crews have been dispatched to the oil depots after learning of a massive attack on them. It was only a matter of time before the media caught wind of this, so I'll let them. It will surly cause a panic amongst the people and show the other countries the technology they'll be getting. All my life I've waited for this moment, since my first days on the project till now..."
The shadowy figure stops for a second as he finishes his thought, "All my designs and brilliant breakthroughs in science have finally paid off. They thought I was mad for trying to blend all of these alien technologies together, that it wouldn't all function as well as it has been.... but I showed them. Nothing can stop me now, these...Transformers... are increasing my skills by leaps and bounds. One day we will have the total knowledge of their secrets and become gods among men! Baahahaha!!!"
The other man shakes his head at the insane plan and grabs hold of the pacing man; he brings him out of the darkened area of the room and into one of the spotlights shining down. The mysterious man now is fully visible to see, a Caucasian man wearing a dark blue suit and a white, open collared shirt. His head is balding with a crest of thick messy grey hair around the sides, his face is that of a man worn in years and his skin is as pale as his shirt. As he's brought into on of the lights, the Agent looks at him with great concern.
"Doctor Archeville! We can't allow these things to roam freely! You saw what it did to our weapon and the satellite? We must make a new strike at them now and then clean up this whole mess before we're totally exposed!"
Archeville forces the man's hands off, "Never! This is how it will be Agent West! Don't dare to presume you are in charge of this operation ever again, do you hear me!!"
The doctor's yell causes the man to recoil in fear, the glare from the old man's eyes shows his anger in full force and continues to shake his finger at the doubting agent.
"Now stop your sniveling and get back to work! I will not tolerate anymore of this nonsense...not from you, the President or anyone else! Get out of my sight.... I said...Leave!", Archeville screams at the top of his voice.
The agent bows gracefully and rushes out of the room. The pale doctor sits back in his command chair and activates the monitor ahead of him. A slight hiss from the screen activating soon produces a live image of a man not paying attention to the fact he's on screen. Doctor Archeville clears his throat to catch the person's attention and it works, the man's face now stares up at the doctor looking right at him. The man on the other side is young looking and wearing a pair of average sized gold-rimmed glasses. His hair is cut short on the sides, but looks styled enough on top to show the rest of his golden brown highlights.
"What do you want now Doc? I'm rather busy..."
Archeville stares at him very seriously, "Project N needs to increase dramatically. How soon till you complete your work?"
The young man sighs and rubs his forehead, "Look, I told you this wasn't going to be easy when you showed me.... now...God I don't know..."
The pale man leans forward at the monitor, "That's not good enough. I want it up and running as soon as possible! These bits and pieces you're sending me is worthless, I need more damnit!"
The irritated voice of the doctor soon shows faint hints of his latent European accent, an almost German-Austrian twang in it's inflection, but still enough to make the young boy on the monitor gulp at it's rough tone. The young man sighs again and taps the side of his head while he thinks.
"Alright, hmmm...Give me...I dunno...give me another week."
Archeville pounds his fist on the console holding all the monitors, "No! No more weeks, months or even years! I want it in days or even hours! I've given you far too much time on this project already boy, I could easily make you disappear again, but this time...it will be your real body in that shallow grave out in the desert!"
The doctor notices the fear building in the young kid's eyes as the threat makes him sweat a bit on his brow, leaning back into his chair calmly, Archeville once again clasps his hands and taps his fingers.
"I'm sure by now...they've discovered the brilliant computer whiz Chip Chase is no longer among the living. Shall I let the CIA know you're not dead? Hm? That the virus you planted is still taking money out of many accounts across the globe? Not to mention the various government leaks, spy emails and even several countries you've managed to tick off. Yes, Yes, there's quite the international bounty on your head, certainly no place to hide outside of here if I let you go. Maybe I should kill you and spare your miserable life, because I'm most certain that nothing will come of it...what do you think, Chip?"
The boy gulps again and lowers his eyes; "Give me a few days then."
The old man nods at him, " Thank you my boy. Work quickly and I'll make it all those troubles go away...Archeville out."
The image switches off and the old man grins as he continues to relax proudly in his chair.
Wheeljack and Huffer continue to work on Telatran One back inside the Autobot ship called The Ark, finally they finish up and prepare to restart the computer again. As Huffer rises up from the console he just finished repaired, he looks over to the far side of the room and sees Wheeljack closing his massive console panel as well.
"Well that's it...Telatran One is back online and running smooth again." Wheeljack proclaims, "Now...time to wake this computer up and figure out where everyone is."
Huffer rubs his forehead and sighs relief, "Thank goodness, I was about to go haywire from all this hard work. I hope you fixed everything correctly Wheeljack."
Wheeljack laughs, "We'll soon find out lil' buddy. Hit the restart will ya?"
Huffer walks over to the main controls and presses the large square button Wheeljack was talking about. As soon as he hit it, a massive power surge within the computer itself forcefully ejected Ravage who was still lodged inside. The minidisk spy whimpered from the blast Telatran One gave to the Decepticon and quickly transformed beyond Huffer's head as he went flying out. Huffer was caught off guard by the Decepticon cat's appearance, he stood there speechless as Ravage leaped across and began running out the bridge door behind him. Wheeljack saw everything happen and quickly shouted to Huffer.
"Ravage!! Huffer! Just don't stand there like a lummox! Go after him!!"
Huffer snapped out of his stupor transforming quickly into his orange truck cab mode, he was smaller in design to Optimus Prime and had a few minor differences in the way his truck form looked. Still he one advantage to being smaller, he was faster and without a back trailer lumbering behind him, he could easily catch up to the fleeing Decepticon. Still Ravage sprinted fast down the long ship corridor and looked back every now and then to see how far he was being followed. The flashing red lights and the blaring alarms filled the ship in every corridor and room, booming in the background was Telatran One's voice alerting all throughout the vessel there was a Decepticon intruder. As Ravage went rushing by, a door opened on the sidewall and out stepped Trailbreaker, the bulky looking black and chromed robot caught a quick glimpse of the intruder and looked confused as to what was happening. Huffer saw Trailbreaker standing there and shouted out to him as he was trying to stop the fast black cat.
"Don't let him get away Trailbreaker! It's Ravage!!"
The large black Autobot didn't even have to think twice, he ran down the hall and saw the Decepticon almost reaching the open bay door leading outside.
"Oh no you don't...time to block your only way out!"
The minute he finished saying that, his shoulder mounted chrome-looking device shot out a massive energy pulse that streaked over to the large doorway and covered the whole thing in it's electric plasma green glow. Ravage hit this strange pulsating energy and bounced off of it like a rubber wall. Trailbreaker laughed at the bouncing kitty as he watched it repeatedly trying to break through it, his running became a slow walk as he approached the frantic Decepticon. Huffer finally reached them both and quickly transformed into his robot mode again, he took out his gun from a panel opening behind his back and pointed it at the intruder.
"Don't you move a muscle Ravage...I got my blaster aimed straight at your head! Just give me a reason to blow it clean off!"
The black cat stopped in its tracks and stood there growling at the two Autobots, Trailbreaker used his arm cannon to launch a energon cage and trap the Decepticon in its place. Most transformers have arms that are built in cannons, often they come in handy when there's no hand weapon to be found, instead of having a regular arm and hand they have a large blaster arm that channels from their power directly. Trailbreaker manages to use it for mainly making force fields or a last resort when no other weapon is available; a master at creating them, force fields are his specialty. Now that Ravage is caught, his energy force field surrounding the large main door dissipates as the time collapses of its use.
"There we go...one black cat, never to trouble our path again. Good thing I stayed behind."
Huffer looks up at him confused, "Hey ya...where the heck were you? I could have joined the others if I'd known you were still here. Weren't you in the line up? "
"Nope...I asked Optimus to let me finish making repairs to the sick bay incase they need it. I'm more wondering where Mirage is...haven't seen him for a long time either."
Huffer lets out a snicker, "I'll bet he's looking for a new place to live. I don't trust that guy...on one hand he wants to stop Megatron and the Decepticons, but on the other, he doesn't want to fight anymore. Sounds like a pure coward if you ask me."
"Yeah..." the big bulky black robot sighs, "Although he's a good guy, saved my hide a few times during the war...just not much of a fighter I think. I've heard him ramble on about the good ol' days of Cybertron, when he was just a courier racing back and forth between cities. Remember Huffer, not all of us were born warriors you know. Just give the guy a break and he'll prove his worth to the team..."
"Whatever Trailbreaker.... I'll believe it when I see it."
Suddenly Optimus Prime's voice is heard over their built in radio receivers, they all hold up their hands to their heads to activate their transceivers.
"Optimus to base! Optimus to base! "
Trailbreaker responds to the leader by talking back with his built in microphone inside his head, "Base to Prime...this is Trailbreaker, we're receiving you Optimus Prime, over."
"Trailbreaker...prepare that sick bay and get ready for human casualties. Tell Huffer and Wheeljack to finish fixing Telatran One as soon as possible!"
Huffer opens a comm-link to the Autobot leader, "This is Huffer Prime.... we've finished repairs and T-1 is A-OK again!"
"Good work Huffer, as soon as we arrive I want all personnel to assemble in the bridge. It's time we figure out what our next plan of attack will be."
Huffer grins and joyfully confirms back to him, "You got it Prime! Huffer out!"
Outside, down in the valley heading towards the mountain where the ship lays, Optimus Prime and the other race up the road heading for it. The human army follows closely behind as they bring their wounded back to Autobot headquarters, some of the trucks pull off and stay down near the campsite already set up from last time. The larger trucks head up with the Autobots as they all begin to move into the ship. As Prowl and Cliffjumper pass in their car forms, Trailbreaker uses his force field cannon arm to move the trapped Decepticon aside. Still not able to get out of it, Ravage continually claws at the energon mesh cage in a hopeless attempt to break free. As the others continue to head deeper into the ship, Cliffjumper and Prowl transform and walk over to Trailbreaker and his catch of the day.
"Well, well, well...", Cliffjumper states, "Looks like our main man here bagged himself a kitty cat."
Prowl laughs, "Yeah...funny I don't remember seeing you out there fighting them though?"
Trailbreaker scoffs at Prowls stupid remark, "That's funny, I could have sworn you were supposed to be the security chief of this place. This spy got in here without us knowing about it."
Prowl seemed taken back by that remark, he knew that if Kup had seen that happen he'd be in trouble big time. Indeed he did fail on carefully searching Bumblebee and the others when they came back, something that he's not proud of and something that Kup would look down on him about. Without even saying anymore, Prowl turned around and walked down the corridor to the bridge like a grumpy kid. It was a blow to his professional ego, a small spy getting past all of them was a major security breach, in his mind, he could hear Kup scolding him out for such a lackluster performance. It was time for him to get serious about improving security around the ship, it was time for him to prove that he could be as good as Kup ever was and it was time for him to get to work.
The General and his wounded soldiers drove into the Autobot sick bay and began to set up a makeshift hospital for themselves. Ratchet drove in and stopped near one of the metallic beds the Autobots usually rest upon when injured themselves. He opened the top of his roof and raised the critical injured army men onto the cold hard surface of the bed. Like a large crane, his inner robotic hoist placed them up onto the bed as gently as he could. Once they were placed there, he quickly transformed and examined their wounds. Ratchet by no means a human medical expert, with very little time to study human anatomy he resorted to asking Telatran One for assistance.
"Telatran One are you online?"
"Affirmative", the computerized voice spoke out of nowhere.
"Scan the humans for damage and recall any treatment information.", the worried robotic doctor instructed.
"Scanning...", the computer quickly responded.
A large blue light beamed out over head the humans lying there, it was a fine light source almost like a soft laser beam, and it passed over the humans both horizontally and vertically. As quick as the beam appeared it soon turned off and the computer gave it's analysis.
"Humans are suffering multiple factures of various bone structures, vital organs are on the brink of failure and blood loss is occurring rapidly. Recommend immediate surgical reconstruction based on human practices."
Ratchet sighed and soon realized the men were dying, he'd have to learn how to operate on these humans and quick. The General walked over to the large medical Autobot and saw that it was struggling to figure out how to proceed.
"Ratchet...do you need help? I could always call for one of our doctors to come.", the General says to him.
Ratchet shakes his head, "No, that's ok General. These men need treatment fast...but thanks for your concern. Telatran One...this is a medical priority, I need the information on human surgical repairs and all knowledge of human anatomy..."
The computer grants his request, "Affirmative, voice priority recognized. Downloading all information on Earth human surgeries and procedures."
The blue beam of light re-appears and aims itself directly at the medical robot's head. Ratchet stands there downloading all the information as the beam sends it directly into his brain; the glow in his blue eyes flutters as the General stands there watching this robot learn everything about human medical operations. It seemed incredible to him that this robot could become a master human surgeon in the matter of seconds. The light source turned off again and Ratchet snapped out of his downloading stupor. He looked down at the human patients and began prepping them for surgery. Looking down at the General he smiled and gave him a nod of reassurance.
"Don't worry General...I know what I'm supposed to do now. If you'd like, you can be my nurse...I'll need some help and some blood."
"I'm on it.", the man smiles back.
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As the Decepticons prepare to move out to the various energy locations, Megatron stares at the human/alien hybrid vehicle. He reaches down and yanks the double-barreled cannon off of the transport back; Starscream wanders over and looks at it with his evil leader.
"This weapon managed to take out a Decepticon...", Megatron thought out loud, "Such primitive beings...and yet...such advanced and almost familiar technology."
Starscream stared at it as his leader clutched it in his grasp, "It does seems strangely recognizable...I'm almost certain I've seen that design somewhere before. Where did they acquire it I wonder?"
"I'd ask one of our prisoners...but something in my internal power source that they wouldn't have a clue. Hmm...No, there's someone else building these things, someone that is meddling with technology they know nothing about." Megatron says to the curious air commander.
Looking at it one more time, he simply grimaces and chucks it back onto the ground. The weapons smacks back on top of the transport vehicle and crushes it even more. Soundwave casually approaches Megatron and salutes him.
"We are ready to proceed Megatron!" the blue robot says in his monotone voice.
"Very good Soundwave, We'll start with a few oil refineries and work our way over to Sherman Dam. Tell the Constructicons to keep working and monitor the human prisoners, I don't want our...guests fleeing our sights before the ship is built!"
Soundwave salutes him again and walks over to the Constructicons still working on the ship. They are very swift and diligent workers, already using the surrounding metal left over from the human machines and weapons, they've managed to build the ship's lower framework and some of its engines. As the evil leader is about to step away from the transport debris, Starscream voices his concern.
"Wait! What about this weapon? Surely we must investigate this matter further, what if they build another one just like it?"
Megatron shakes his head and snickers, "Ah Starscream...you worry too much about such minor things. By the time we've built this ship and taken all the energy back with us, the matter will be moot. If you fear the humans so much...then please go and surrender yourself and be done of this spineless whimpering!"
"I'm not spineless Megatron..." the Decepticon scowls at him.
The leader laughs, "Of course not.... that's why you hid behind me when they attacked you."
Starscream clenched his fist and snarled at the evil leader, "I did no such thing.... I...I was just making sure I wasn't hogging all the glory away from you."
"Naturally." Megatron smiled as if he knew the lie to be as stupid as his air commander.
The leader then stood out in the open and looked at all of his warriors, he raised his arms in the air and shouted out to them all.
"Decepticons! Let us begin our hunt for Energon!!"
All of the various Decepticon soldiers cheered and watched their leader fly up into the sky. They too launched upward with him and made their way to the locations Soundwave had suggested. Starscream took one last look at the human/alien weapon lying there and gave a look of doubt. Humans had managed to bruise him and that concerned him a lot. But since Megatron wasn't too concerned about it, then it probably wasn't a big a deal as he had thought. He lifted himself off the ground and flew upwards to catch up with the rest of the group; he transformed into his super sonic F-19 jet mode and let his thrusters kick in.
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The Autobots stood all around the bridge of The Ark, Optimus Prime paced back and forth as they all looked on and watched him do so. Carly, Spike and Sparkplug all stood off to the side where the Autobot leader was walking and also watched him as he mulled over their next plan of action.
"Megatron won't stay put in that area for long. He'll need energon in order to leave this planet, so that begs the question, where will he strike?"
Sparkplug rubs his back neck, "Anywhere he wants it seems...man, I think he's got his choice around the world. There all sorts of places to go...there's oil fields, gas depots, hydroelectric plants..."
Prime stops in his tracks and sighs, "Yes...this world is a feeding frenzy for his appetite. Hmm...Still, he'd want to stay near the area, I know him too well. His ship under construction is close by and he won't want to stray too far incase we try to attack the site again. He'll undoubtedly try to attack anything near by that can produce large quantities of energy."
Hound taps his head in thought, "Well that might be the oil refineries...those are close by. But from what I've studied on them briefly, they don't seem to be enough for his ship, his men and Cybertron."
Jazz folds his arms and shakes his head, "Man, we're wasting our time trying predict his next move. If we so much as even try to stop him he'll give the order to kill those human hostages, face it guys...he's got our sorry butts in a noose."
Cliffjumper stands up out of his chair, he was sitting in the command chair Prime would sit in during flight of the ship, but he leaps up and shakes his fists at them all.
"Megatron needs to be put out for good! I'm sorry to be the one to say this...but those humans shouldn't have gotten in the way! I say we take our chances and take those Decepticons down!!"
Trailbreaker stands over him and gives him a small jolt on the top of the screaming Autobot's head, "Aw, hush up you big hot head! We're not going to kill those humans just to satisfy your itch to kill Megatron, so pipe down."
Cliffjumper turns to the big black robot and takes a few swings at him, but since Trailbreaker is taller and bigger then him, he holds the small minibot's head in his hand while the little hot head tries to hit him.
"Oh yeah?! You want a piece of me too? Come on big boy...let's dance!!"
Optimus becomes furious at Cliffjumper and shouts at him, "Cliffjumper!! Enough!! Settle down or I'll have you in the lower regions of this ship scraping off the rock with nothing more then a thin pair of tweezers!!"
The mini red Autobot silenced immediately and sat back down into the chair like a scolded child would. Optimus regained his composure and looked around at the others, they all knew he was ticked off and didn't want to say anything else that might set him off again. Carly was too busy thinking of where the Decepticons would strike next to notice the small Autobot's ranting and suddenly realized of one location the evil leader might go.
"Dams..." She said quietly.
Spike standing right next to her looked over and realized she spoke, "I beg your pardon?"
She smiled at the young fair-haired boy and said it again, " Dams! Think about it Spike...Dams produce a lot of energy."
"But not the amount they're thinking of Carly. It wouldn't make any sense, why would he go for Dams when there are perfectly good nuclear plants all around."
Suddenly across the room, Wheeljack heard the two of them talking and shouted out to them both, "Nuclear plants have too much radiation..."
They both looked surprised that he could hear them from so far away, but as he walked into the middle of the room near where Prime was standing, he continued to talk about it.
"They'd have to do a lot of work to create a safe energy field in order to keep their own circuits from frying. But I like the idea you had about dams Carly, if they could some how increase the water flow and increase the pressure...the generators would be able to produce instant electrical jolt that would give them the energy needed."
Optimus Prime and the others listened to Wheeljack's theory, stood there thinking about the possibility and stroked his manifold chin.
"Hmmm...Sounds like Megatron's kind of angle. But how would he collect the energy surge? I'd doubt he'd ask his men to carry it all in their energy absorbers all that time."
Wheeljack thinks for a second and snaps his fingers as an idea pops in his head, "I've got it! During the war, there was talk of taking energon and compacting them into storage fields, sort of like taking the energy and crushing it down into tight wads of power. And since only Soundwave was the leader in that field of science...I'll bet he designed a way to store the energy into some sort of compact shell that would make it easier to put on their ship."
Huffer snickers, "Yeah right Wheeljack, I think that crash has struck your processors too much. Thats a load of cyberjunk if I ever heard it!"
Carly runs over to Wheeljack and starts to realize what he's talking about, "No...Wheeljack is right Huffer! It's kind of like dehydrating liquid into powdered crystal form and filling it into a container. It may not look like much in the powered form, but once it's re-hydrated it becomes twice the size of the container's volume. Compacted energy into lightweight containers..."
"Or..." Wheeljack adds in, "A stable force field that could contain it all. Making it very lightweight, but extremely unstable. If it gets dropped or the field collapses.... boom!"
Optimus Prime nods to them both for the helpful ideas, "Now we have a theory on how they'll collect it. Thank you. But if this is indeed how they will proceed, which dam will they target to do this?"
Prime walks over to the computer and taps on the oddly constructed keyboard in front of him.
"Telatran One...give me the location of any known dam in the area that is big enough to withstand a major flood or even a increase in water pressure. Specifically one that is within the distance to this ship and the Decepticon site."
The massive computer screen flickers and sifts though a various images of local dams, "Beginning search.... searching...."
As Telatran One scans for near by dams, Sparkplug turns around to see the General walking in through the bridge doors, he's using a blood spattered cloth to wipe his hands and shows some signs of fatigue. No longer wearing the green military suit jacket, he took it off to aid Ratchet as he operated on his men, now the clean white long sleeved shirt he wore underneath is smeared with blood as well. His sleeves rolled up and his black tie loosened gives him a more relaxed look, but after being in surgery for a while, he looks anything but relaxed. Sparkplug walks over and pats the man casually on the right arm.
"How's it going in there?", Sparkplug asks.
The General sighs as he continues to rub the blood off of his hands, "Its looking better then it was...Ratchet is doing a fine job, but he's unconfident about his skills as a surgeon...well...on humans anyway. Nevertheless I'm impressed with what he's done so far, his hands were moving faster then I could see, its incredible what these machines can do."
Sparkplug nods in agreement, "No argument here. These Autobots are truly something, they could have come in and taken over the entire world like the Decepticons, but instead choose to honor life wherever they find it. Such noble beings.... it really humbles our kind greatly."
"They've certainly humbled this stubborn old fool.", the General says in a somber tone, "I send men in to die and never give it a second thought, but Optimus Prime sends his in to save ours and deeply cares what happens to both kind. Rather then risk so many lives, he'll do what's honorable...how many of us can say the same?"
Sparkplug looks kindly onto him, "Don't beat yourself up too much General, we know you were only looking out for best interest. Sometimes it takes a defeat to humble a man and realize that he's only human, we all make mistakes, but we learn from them as well."
The old commander stares up at him and nods, "Yeah...we certainly do. And Sparkplug? You can call me Hank ok? But uhm...Don't tell the others I said you could."
The construction worker looked at him and started to smile, the brash military man gave him a wink and started to smile. Sparkplug slowly chuckled and so too did the General, the rare time anyone has seen a hard nosed man like that have any sort of genuine laughter. The two men shook hands and continued to giggle lightly. Suddenly, while the two men shared a friendly moment behind, Telatran One finally spoke out loud to Optimus Prime as it held an image of a dam on its monitor.
"Location found.", the computer said to Optimus who was sitting there patiently, "Sherman Dam is the closest water reserve within the specified parameters. It is a large water reserve capable of generating large amounts of electricity and well constructed to sustain any major flooding events."
Optimus Prime leaned in to have a closer look at the image on the screen; Telatran One scrolled all the vital information of its energy production, size and blueprints.
"Telatran One, theorize for me.... if the dam was modified to produce double or triple the amount of water pressure and produced a pure source of energy, would it be possible to store vast amounts into compressed sized energon modules?"
The computer thinks for a second and quickly responds with diagrams showing the possibility, "Affirmative, energy could be stored into compact force field energon modules, compressed energy would be stable for transport, but easily damaged if mishandled or fired at with an energy weapon."
Ironhide sitting there listening to it all jumped up from his spot and threw his arms out with clenched fists, "It's confirmed! Wheeljack was right; Megatron is planning to take enough energy to refuel the war back home! We've got to stop him right now Prime, not just for our sake but for the humans as well."
The Autobot leader turned around to face his men, "Yes Ironhide...I know. But with the human hostages in his grip...we dare not act. But.... I do have a plan..."
Sparkplug and General Hank walk over to hear it, as do Carly, Spike and the rest of the Autobot soldiers. They all encircle the leader as he tells them of his idea of what to do next.
"First off...we're going to that dam, we'll catch him in the act of surprise as they try to fill up on energon. But before we can move in...I'm going to send someone in to rescue the hostages at the same time. Hmm...Where's Mirage?"
Huffer laughs, "Mirage? He's probably driving clear across the planet by now...anything to get away from being a soldier."
Suddenly, a disembodied voice booms out from directly behind him, "That's what your think you orange hard head!"
As Huffer turns around the voice of the Autobot materializes in front of his eyes. A soft green hue of light outlines his whole body frame and then quickly turns into the blue and white robot that stands there smiling at him. Everyone is shocked to see him there, as far as anyone knew; Mirage wasn't even in the ship at all.
Optimus Prime walked over and folded his arms as he stood in front of him, "Welcome back, Mirage. I trust you carried out the mission I sent you on?"
The blue and white robot saluted the slightly taller Autobot leader, "Absolutely Prime. I did what you asked. I followed the human agents helicopters and located the base they went too. Not one of them spotted me...guess being invisible helps."
Prowl didn't seem to understand, "Prime? What's going on here? I thought for sure that Mirage ran out on us."
Mirage gave a chuckle at that comment, "No way! I'd never do that to you guys, besides I'm a better spy then a fighter...Kup told me that once."
"Indeed..." Optimus Prime said in a calm manner, "Now then, give me a report Mirage...what did you find out."
"I followed them as far as I could...out to some big long road that led into desert-mountain region, but before I could get close to where they set down, I detected some image scanners that would have shown me on thermals. Prime...some of those scanners were really advanced for this species, I mean...it's like they stole some of our level of technology cause I swear I've seen that type of imager before."
Prime nods at Mirage's discovery and pats him on the shoulder, "Good work. We'll have to deal with that issue at another time. Right now, I've got a new task for you."
Mirage straightens up, "Where to next Prime, I'm ready!"
"I need you to head out to the Decepticon site and rescue the humans. I'll have Prowl fill you in on the details and the location later, but you can't do this alone...I need another volunteer to help you."
Sparkplug raises his hand, "I'll do it Prime."
Prime shakes his head, "No Sparkplug...I need you and the General with us to help get the men out and put them within a safe distance. That goes for you too Spike...we might need you and your father to shut down the dam if the Autobots and I become too busy with the Decepticons. We'll distract them long enough for you to shut it all down."
Spike nods and Carly suddenly steps out at the massive robot leader, "How bout me then? I'll go with Mirage..."
Hound leans down at her, "It's dangerous Carly. I'll be the one to go with him."
Carly starts to get mad, "But the Autobots will need your help as well Hound. Let me go Optimus.... you need me too!"
Prime shakes his head, "I can't endanger your life too Carly...I think you'd help us more by staying behind and helping the soldiers recover."
Mad as hell, she stomps her foot and points at him while she shouts, "Listen Prime, I'm sick of being treated as just some weak lil' woman...every male I've encountered has treated me that way and I'm tired of it. I'm going to help Mirage, I'm going to free those hostages and there's nothing you can say that will stop me from going. Case Closed!!"
All the Autobots flinched as she stood there ripping into the leader, some were wide-eyed and in shock that she screamed at him. Prime didn't move a muscle as he looked at her, his eyes dimmed as she finished and raised his head over at Mirage. The blue and white Autobot simply shrugged his shoulders at the leader and laughed a bit.
"Wow...uhm...well...I guess that settled."
Suddenly, Telatran One beings to sound the alarms and flashes a red light on and off in the room. The sound and the light fill the entire place and the computer voice can be heard warning them.
"Alert! Alert! Decepticon activity detected!!"
Bluestreak runs over to the computer and looks on the monitor, "They're in one of the oil refineries Prime, diverting crude oil into energon. "
Prime looks over to him, "How many and how long?"
The Sliver/blue-ish robot taps on the Cybertronian keyboard and enters the results, "Looks like nearly all of them, at the rate they're draining that place...we've got like an hour or less till they move to the next target."
The Autobot leader's eyes flash a bright blue, "Sherman Dam will be next...we can't reach the refinery in time, but the dam will be the place we'll be waiting for him. Autobots! Prepare to move out!"
â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢â¢ Out in the plains of an oil refinery depot, humans scramble to flee the area; some jump into their cars and trucks and bolt off like lightening. As they all randomly look back, they see the group of Decepticons firing their energy weapons at them. Blasting away, they scare them off like cattle; even the ones that try to stand their ground. Megatron swoops in and fires his black arm cannon at one of the buildings, the explosion sends debris everywhere and even causes a slight tremor from the impact. With the last group of humans fleeing for their lives the rest of the evil robot group land on the ground and help the others work. The Decepticons swarm the oil depot as they fill up the energon cubes that Soundwave provides for them. The energon cubes are produced out of the Minidisk transformer's chest, pinkish red in hue and looking more like empty outlined boxes. They continually pop out of Soundwave's chest mini disk loader window as each Decepticon grabs one and fills it up. Those that were filled instantly convert the matter into energon and cause the cube to glow with raw power. Megatron stands there watching it all with a great greedy pride; the beaming smile from his face shows his pleasure and chuckles to himself at the overwhelming spoils they're reaping from this planet. Starscream feels like wiping his brow from all the hard labor, he's not use to doing things himself, normally he assigns one of his own troops to do the dirty work for him, But now he's forced to do it because there isn't enough of them to pass it off to someone else. Skywarp walks up and places his cubes down on the ground next to Starscream's load, as Starscream mutters on about their leader.
"Look at him Skywarp...he doesn't even lift a finger to help us. Hmpft! I tell you...when we get back to Cybertron...I'm going to kill him and become the new ruler."
Skywarp whispers to Starscream carefully, "You'd better not talk like that Starscream, if Megatron hears that from you again he'll definitely rip out your guts just like he did to Jetplague."
The grey colored air commander laughs softly, "Jetplague was a weakling. I'm much more stronger and faster then he ever was...and I'm definitely smarter then Megatron over there. Stick with me my friend...I'll be made leader yet."
The black and purple Decepticon scoffs at him, "Yeah right...that's why you tremble in your booties every time he threatens you, eh Starscream?"
Rumble comes huffing and puffing over to them, he drops his load of energon cubes down and bends over like he's overdone his share of the workload. Catching his breath, he talks to the two Decepticon jets after eaves dropping on their conversation.
"You know Starscream.... Huff! Huff! ...If you did less chattin' and more work, we'd be done by now.", the mini robot says to him.
"I don't remember asking your opinion Rumble...so shut your trap!", Starscream says angrily.
Reflector, the tri-robot group, all walk over to the Decepticon leader and talk in unison.
"We're just about finished Megatron. "
Megatron nods, "Good. Any sign of the Autobots or the human military?"
"None that we can detect mighty leader. It appears they've kept their word. "
Megatron laughs, "Prime always does. That's what makes him such a pathetic fool, now that we have the humans as hostages, he'll do whatever I tell him to do."
As he looks out across the oil refinery, he sees his men are just finishing up filling the cubes and all walk over to the brightly glowing pile. Megatron also walks over to them all and picks up a cube to examine it closer.
"Success Decepticons! They look absolutely flawless, raw energon at its finest...now we must take them back to our temporary base and proceed to the next target."
Looking over at Thundercracker, Skywarp and Starscream, Megatron chucks one of the energon cubes at Thundercracker chuckles at him trying to catch it before it drops near them all. The light pale blue transformer grabs it and lets out a sigh of relief from not letting it fall at his feet.
"Nice catch Thundercracker...", Megatron snickers, "Now fill up your cargo hold and take those cubes back to the Constructicons. The rest of us will continue on to Sherman Dam and fill up more of these precious energon cubes."
Thundercracker nods and quickly transforms into his blue F-18 jet mode and opens up the top section of his body. Like a pair of cargo doors opening on the space shuttle, they swing open and reveal the large space that looks just about enough to hold all those cubes. Each Decepticon picks up a stack of glowing pinkish red cubes and place it inside of him. As they continue to fill his space up, Soundwave, who looks concerned about something, approaches Megatron. Megatron looks over to see the blue-silver robot staring up at the sky.
"What is it Soundwave?"
"We are being observed by a strange object in orbit of the planet.", he says to him in his monotone resonating voice.
Megatron looks up and squints with his eyes, "Yes.... I've noticed that before. We're being watched Soundwave, no doubt the humans are very curious beings. It is a dangerous quality I've discovered about them."
"It is of strange construction...I cannot identify most of its technology.", the yellow-eyed cycloptic robot says to the leader.
"Indeed...it must be almost like that vehicle they used. Technology they have no understanding of.... but yet...someone seems to know how to incorporate it into their own."
Soundwave nods in agreement and adds more information; "It has followed us since the battle and seems to remain focused on our every movement."
Megatron continues too look up at the small faint dot in the sky and glares at it, "I don't like being spied upon Soundwave, not even by creatures as dumb as these ones. They must be taught yet another lesson by us."
High above the Earth, the hybrid human-alien satellite gazes down at them, the half round black eye of the craft shimmers in the Earth's bright reflection. Elsewhere, deep within the bowls of Area 51, the mysterious shadowed figure monitors them as he sits in his large command chair. All that can be seen of him is his hands pressed together in a prayer like fashion; the large view screen in front of him shows Megatron staring directly at him.
"So...you see me do you?", the shadow covered human says, as if Megatron could hear him, "Interesting."
As he watches Megatron, he notices the robot transforming into his handgun mode and being placed into the hands of Soundwave who was standing next to him at the time. The shadowy man sits up in his chair as he witnesses the robot aim the hand weapon directly at the satellite. At the oil depot, Soundwave holds Megatron steady in his hand, the long shaft of the leader's black silencer barrel glistens in the sunlight as it takes aim. With one firm twitch of his finger, the Minidisk transformer fires the weapon and a large red streak of energy cannons out of it. As fast as lightening, the energy blast reaches the spy satellite and causes it to explode in a massive fireball. Some parts vaporize on impact and the rest ejects sporadically into pieces. What was once in space is no more. After the deed was done, Megatron re-transformed into his robotic mode again and gave an evil smirk as he stared up at the falling debris. The mysterious man stood in front of his many monitors, all hissing and showing nothing but static. Not one image was left on any of them; with his hybrid spy craft gone...there was nothing to view. Another man entered the room; Agent West once again walks over to him and pauses beside the shadowy man known only as N Leader.
"I take it...he discovered our presence?"
The N Leader nodded, "So it would seem. But not to worry West...we can always launch another one."
"Sir..." The Agent adds, "Drakemore is back and requesting his next mission."
The dark figure sighs, "Tell him to be on hold for now. I want to see how this will play itself out."
"I beg your pardon sir?" West asks astonished.
"I want to see how much damage the Autobots and Decepticons cause before I make my offer to the rest of the world. Once we have a public display of their destructive behavior...the world governments will increase their demand for the technology. Increased demands mean increased profits, once that has been established...we can terminate them completely and salvage the goods."
Agent West, rubs his right hand up into his dark hair and finally rests it on the back of his neck, "But...how will we achieve this sir? The only satellite we had in orbit is now...well...gone."
The N Leader giggles at the stupid question and paces in the room, "News crews have been dispatched to the oil depots after learning of a massive attack on them. It was only a matter of time before the media caught wind of this, so I'll let them. It will surly cause a panic amongst the people and show the other countries the technology they'll be getting. All my life I've waited for this moment, since my first days on the project till now..."
The shadowy figure stops for a second as he finishes his thought, "All my designs and brilliant breakthroughs in science have finally paid off. They thought I was mad for trying to blend all of these alien technologies together, that it wouldn't all function as well as it has been.... but I showed them. Nothing can stop me now, these...Transformers... are increasing my skills by leaps and bounds. One day we will have the total knowledge of their secrets and become gods among men! Baahahaha!!!"
The other man shakes his head at the insane plan and grabs hold of the pacing man; he brings him out of the darkened area of the room and into one of the spotlights shining down. The mysterious man now is fully visible to see, a Caucasian man wearing a dark blue suit and a white, open collared shirt. His head is balding with a crest of thick messy grey hair around the sides, his face is that of a man worn in years and his skin is as pale as his shirt. As he's brought into on of the lights, the Agent looks at him with great concern.
"Doctor Archeville! We can't allow these things to roam freely! You saw what it did to our weapon and the satellite? We must make a new strike at them now and then clean up this whole mess before we're totally exposed!"
Archeville forces the man's hands off, "Never! This is how it will be Agent West! Don't dare to presume you are in charge of this operation ever again, do you hear me!!"
The doctor's yell causes the man to recoil in fear, the glare from the old man's eyes shows his anger in full force and continues to shake his finger at the doubting agent.
"Now stop your sniveling and get back to work! I will not tolerate anymore of this nonsense...not from you, the President or anyone else! Get out of my sight.... I said...Leave!", Archeville screams at the top of his voice.
The agent bows gracefully and rushes out of the room. The pale doctor sits back in his command chair and activates the monitor ahead of him. A slight hiss from the screen activating soon produces a live image of a man not paying attention to the fact he's on screen. Doctor Archeville clears his throat to catch the person's attention and it works, the man's face now stares up at the doctor looking right at him. The man on the other side is young looking and wearing a pair of average sized gold-rimmed glasses. His hair is cut short on the sides, but looks styled enough on top to show the rest of his golden brown highlights.
"What do you want now Doc? I'm rather busy..."
Archeville stares at him very seriously, "Project N needs to increase dramatically. How soon till you complete your work?"
The young man sighs and rubs his forehead, "Look, I told you this wasn't going to be easy when you showed me.... now...God I don't know..."
The pale man leans forward at the monitor, "That's not good enough. I want it up and running as soon as possible! These bits and pieces you're sending me is worthless, I need more damnit!"
The irritated voice of the doctor soon shows faint hints of his latent European accent, an almost German-Austrian twang in it's inflection, but still enough to make the young boy on the monitor gulp at it's rough tone. The young man sighs again and taps the side of his head while he thinks.
"Alright, hmmm...Give me...I dunno...give me another week."
Archeville pounds his fist on the console holding all the monitors, "No! No more weeks, months or even years! I want it in days or even hours! I've given you far too much time on this project already boy, I could easily make you disappear again, but this time...it will be your real body in that shallow grave out in the desert!"
The doctor notices the fear building in the young kid's eyes as the threat makes him sweat a bit on his brow, leaning back into his chair calmly, Archeville once again clasps his hands and taps his fingers.
"I'm sure by now...they've discovered the brilliant computer whiz Chip Chase is no longer among the living. Shall I let the CIA know you're not dead? Hm? That the virus you planted is still taking money out of many accounts across the globe? Not to mention the various government leaks, spy emails and even several countries you've managed to tick off. Yes, Yes, there's quite the international bounty on your head, certainly no place to hide outside of here if I let you go. Maybe I should kill you and spare your miserable life, because I'm most certain that nothing will come of it...what do you think, Chip?"
The boy gulps again and lowers his eyes; "Give me a few days then."
The old man nods at him, " Thank you my boy. Work quickly and I'll make it all those troubles go away...Archeville out."
The image switches off and the old man grins as he continues to relax proudly in his chair.