Chapter 3

It was a nice day to go driving, Sideswipe reflected. It was a sunny day, there was nothing catastrophic looming on the horizon, and the clouds showed not the slightest hint of rain. It was just a pity that Sunstreaker wasn't out here to share it with him.

The red twin would have never admitted it, and if anyone even suggested it Sunstreaker would have smeared them across the floor, but whenever one brother was away from the other they both got nervous. Not stage-fright kind of nervous, with that weird fluttering sensation in your fuel tank, but the other kind of nervous, where you know that something bad is going to happen but you don't know what or when.

Sideswipe resolutely shoved the feelings aside, revved his engine and concentrated on his scanners.

"Autobots on approach!" The Reflector clones announced.
"Who is it?" Ramjet asked.
"Hopefully somebody we can maul real good." Thrust added, cracking his knuckles with a distinctly anticipatory expression.

"It's that crazy red one and the blue spy." Rumble answered, one hand shading his optics from the sun's glare.
"I was hoping for that." Skywarp grinned evilly. "I owe the red one a good scrapping."
"Get down!" Thundercracker ordered. "Here's hoping that doohickie works, they're almost here."

The two Autobots roared up the narrow track and into the craggy foothills, trailing clouds of dust. They were only just inside the shallow gorge when the Decepticons leapt out of hiding.

"AMBUSH!" Sideswipe yelled as laser rounds started carving gouges into the ground. He wrenched his wheels around to the right, transforming and diving for cover as he did so. Mirage fishtailed to avoid a barrage of missiles and quickly joined Sideswipe behind the house-sized boulder he had taken cover behind.

"I can't call base, radio's jammed." Mirage yelled over the cacophony.
"And we're surrounded." Sideswipe said, risking a quick glance around their rapidly shrinking boulder. "I'll distract them, you get an emergency beacon out there." He ordered.
"You've got the better arm." Mirage countered. "I'll cover you."

The race car popped up from behind the boulder and lay down a spread of laser fire, followed up by a missile that forced the attackers to dive aside. Sideswipe rolled into the open and flung the spherical beacon back out the way they had come before rolling back into cover. Now it was only a matter of time.

Prowl almost did a double take as the alert window popped up on Teletran's screen. He quickly read the message then jabbed his finger down on the intercom switch. "Autobots under attack, battle unit assemble." He ordered, then quickly rose to meet them at the entrance of the Ark.

"How did they get past th' sensors?" Ironhide asked as he, Jazz, Prowl, Brawn and Optimus pulled away from the Ark, engines roaring and dust flying from their tyres.
"They must have had a blocking device." Prowl answered, silently berating himself for not investigating the anomaly.
"Worry about that later, we've got to concentrate on the Decepticons." Prime cut in.

They caught up with the Decepticons close to where the beacon was broadcasting from, unfolding into robot mode and charging into battle. The startled Decepticons managed onlya few shots before a barrage of laser fire drove them off.

Prowl knelt beside the crumpled form of Sideswipe. The mech was in bad shape; panels of armour brutally ripped off and deep gouges taken out of his frame. He was clinging to consciousness by sheer willpower. Mirage wasn't much better, but was mercifully off line.

"Are they..?" Jazz asked worriedly.
"No, but close to it." Prowl replied as he scanned the mech's injuries. "We can't risk moving them until they've been stabilised."
"I'll contact Ratchet." Jazz said, touching one hand to the side of his head.

"What's going on!" Sunstreaker demanded as he limped into the repair bay, where Ratchet was quickly grabbing items and stuffing them into subspace.

"Mirage and Sideswipe got ambushed." Ratchet answered shortly as he emptied out a storage bin of emergency powerpacks.
"I'm coming with you."
"The slag you are!" Ratchet growled. "You're staying right here."
"That's my brother out there." Sunstreaker replied in a deadly quiet voice. "I'm going."

Ratchet looked up at the warrior. He knew that stopping the mech would be impossible. The first thing that he had learned as the medic for this unit was to never get between the twins. Ever. "Fine, whatever." He replied angrily. "But if you mess up your internals with this stunt don't come bawling to me."
Sunstreaker let that one slide.

Thundercracker led the rest of his group back to the plateau where Megatron was waiting. "Phase one complete, sir." The Seeker reported.
"Good." Megatron surveyed the waiting Decepticons. "Prepare for phase two."