Preparing the players
Expressions ranged from outright shock to carefully cultured neutrality as Jazz laid out the situation to his peers and superiors.
"Basic gist of it- we got a loco Black Ops specialist comin' down here t' pop me." Jazz said as he summed up. "He won't have no problem mowing through the rest o' ya, so I'm gonna face him alone."
"I can't allow that Jazz." Prime rebutted. "From what you've told us, Deck is far too dangerous to be taken on alone."
"I know him Prime, an' I've beaten him before." Jazz replied, his voice carrying a rare note of defiance. "You're not gonna risk sendin' bots out t' fight one o' our own, 'specially someone that y' don't know much about. I've got a better chance on my own. Please Optimus, have a lil' faith in me."
Blue visor locked with blue optics in a silent debate. Finally, the Prime offered a curt nod. "Alright." He said reluctantly. "I don't like it, but it's the only way. What do you advise?"
"Call in everyone an' put th' Ark into full lockdown. An' keep everyone in one location." Jazz replied. "Deck's an infiltration specialist. If he gets in here before I can bring him down, the less targets wanderin' 'round the base the better."
"Common Room would be best." Prowl spoke up. "It's a fairly defendable location, large enough to hold everyone, and sensor feeds can be diverted to portable comm/scan units."
"Sounds good." Jazz nodded. "There's just one last thing. Deck's shuttle should be here just after nightfall. You need t' be inside b'fore then. Whatever y' see or hear don't come out until sun up. Even if it looks like I've been killed. However this ends, it'll be over by sunrise."
0o0o0
Despite the best efforts of the command team, word leaked out about the situation.
The twins tracked Jazz down to a side room of the armoury, where the black and white had just placed a stack of reinforced gun cases on the scratched tabletop.
"Y'know, someone recently told us that Autobots don't do too well on their own, that if one of us has a problem, we all do." Sunstreaker observed from where he was leaning on the doorframe.
"Not too subtle there Sunny." Jazz commented. "I ain't denying it, an' in any other situation I would've asked for y' help."
"So why don't you?" Sideswipe interrupted, leaning on the opposite side of the doorframe.
"Can't. I ain't gonna risk your lives, 'specially when this guy is after me." Jazz replied, not looking at either twin. He laid out a cleaning kit and started unlocking the gun cases. "Deck isn't gonna stop until he faces me, so I'm gonna save him the trouble by makin' sure he sees me first. But if he does get th' drop on me, Magnus has a team on the way. Give 'em a hand when they come, and if that falls through, Shadow 'ill be here with the 116's and a couple of other folks."
"We got it Jazz." Sunstreaker nodded, pushing off the wall and tugging his brother away.
Prowl was next to visit the saboteur, pausing at the doorframe like the twins had. Jazz had emptied the gun cases of their contents by this stage, the various weapons neatly laid out on the table while Jazz methodically cleaned, checked and prepped each one.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Prowl asked.
"Personally, I'd rather be runnin' th' Kailo-Hescon line again, but I don't really have a choice." Jazz replied, stripping down a long-barrelled rifle and carefully checking each piece over before cleaning and reassembling it.
The tactician watched him silently before coming to the table. He counted two shotguns, three rifles of varying calibres, a sub machine gun, eight pistols and a variety of knives and knife-life weapons, all laid out in a neat fan before the Special Ops officer.
Prowl picked up a clip from the rifle Jazz was working on. Inside the clip were six bullets, each as long and thick as his thumb, more like miniature cannon shells than regular projectiles. They were designed with two explosive chambers, one in the tip to detonate on impact, and the other in the body of the projectile to detonate a second later when the bullet was inside the target.
Prowl held up the clip "These are Black Fang bullets, illegal in six star systems, including ours."
"I know. Chief gave 'em to me just b'fore the sting op that busted his gang." Jazz replied, not looking at the 2IC as he concentrated on a particularly finicky piece. "Picked up th' others here an' there along the way."
"Why didn't you turn them in after the mission?"
"First rule of Black Ops- Never discard a possible asset. Trust me, these things have saved my hide b'fore, an' I'll probably need 'em again t'night."
Prowl considered questioning the Autobot further as to what other things he had chosen to not 'discard', but decided against it. Such a matter could be better discussed later, and right now Jazz needed as little distraction as possible.