Chapter 140 – Kortes
(MPOV)
"Kae," a voice whispered.
I groaned somewhat and buried my face into my Optimus a bit more.
"Kae!" the voice whispered a bit more loudly.
"What?" I mumbled.
"Kae we need you in communications," Will's voice whispered apologetically.
I groaned and onlined an optic. Will was standing hesitantly on the ladder to our berth.
"What is it?" I mumbled.
"I don't know, neither does Jolt, or Jazz, or Ironhide, or Ratchet, we tried really, really hard to not wake you up," Will whispered. I quickly cycled my processors and glanced at my chronometer, I'd been asleep for sixteen hours, my cells were registering a full charge, but Ratchet only knew what the charge was actually at. I vented a low sigh and gently squirmed from my Optimus' arms.
He roused somewhat, an optic coming dimly online to look at me.
"I'll be back, my beloved," I whispered, pressing a gentle kiss to his lips.
He nodded somewhat and dropped back into his recharge. I lightly crawled over him and sat on the edge of our berth for a second, cycling my processors again until I was finally, finally properly online. I offered a hand to the major and rose, lightly carrying him to communications central.
The first bad sign, was that Barry was standing with a frown on his face. Not even pissed off frown.
Massive worry frown.
I looked at the screens in horror, several of the humans were staring at me with just as much horror in their eyes. Jolt looked absolutely shell-shocked.
A massive signal. There was no telling if that signal was a bot, con, grouping, or nothing more than a newly unearthed energon deposit.
"Sit Rep?" I asked quietly, looking around myself.
"It just showed up!" Jolt murmured apologetically.
"Seismic readings are spiking all around the area," Barry added worriedly. "It's not an earthquake, because the vibrations haven't stopped!"
"Right, I'll go take a look, Chance?" I sighed.
"Yeah?" the man asked with raised eyebrows.
"Go get Ratchet to suit you up," I stated calmly. The man grinned and fairly fled from communications. In moments I was striding behind him, moving from communications and back to our quarters, I needed my armour.
My Optimus didn't rouse as I walked in, my poor bot had run himself down to almost nothing again, I summoned my armour and pressed a gentle kiss to his jaw before striding from our quarters.
(CdPOV)
"Right, so that's the Kortes Dam down there," Chance stated with a frown, lightly guiding Kae's alt-mode to circle the area. "Kae?"
There was a minor jerk in her flight.
"Huh?" she mumbled.
"Dude you were asleep!?" Chance demanded in shock.
"Well... you were driving," she murmured. He heard her processors re-sync themselves again.
"Why the hell did you agree to this? You're practically dead on your feet!" Chance stated with a deep frown.
"Do I have the choice?"
Chance's heart sank for her, the bots had returned to their own day cycles, which meant they'd need a minimum of two days recharge.
They'd roused her after barely half a day. Not only that, Optimus had nearly been worked to the ground last mission, according to Ratchet, the two of them were supposed to be out for five!
"Let's get this done and go home," Chance stated gently, Mikaela seemed to nod and began scanning, as evidenced by the screens popping up in front of him.
"Please please be an energon deposit," Mikaela murmured softly.
Chance looked at the screens for a moment and frowned.
"Uh..."
"Hmn?" Mikaela murmured.
"Energon doesn't move on it's own, does it?" he asked hopefully.
"No," Mikaela sighed. "It doesn't Chance, energon isn't alive on it's own."
"Then what the hell is that!?" he demanded flatly.
Mikaela lightly took over control of the vectors and fairly swooped closer, obviously scanning.
"Aaah scrap," she growled softly.
"What?"
"SCRAP!" she was shouting the next second. "Chance! Clench up!"
Instinctively, Chance tightened his muscles, grateful for the warning as Kae dove, transforming around him and landing with him in her hand. She knelt down and deposited him on the ground.
This was quite frankly? An awesome spot. The dam towered over them, the cliff walls tapering away into the riverbed. He could see them fall away into a flood plane perhaps a mile down river.
"Chance," she stated gravely, looking him in the eyes.
Oh shit.
"Orders," he barked out, snapping to attention and holding her optics.
"Thank your lucky stars you've been training with the suit, I'm bringing your weapons functions online, Chance, we've got a sunovabitch of a problem."
Shit. Awesome. But still demanding of a good few expletives.
"Sit rep?" he demanded, immediately switching his suit over to combat mode and bringing the plasma rifle online.
"My scanners are indicating some kind of Cybertronian termite," Mikaela stated grimly, Chance jogged beside her as she continued scanning, striding toward the dam. "That's the bit that's moving, what I don't understand is this second energon reading. It honestly looks like somebody went and poured a bunch of energon into the dam's pipes! Ugh, Kae to Jolt," she added, reaching up and lightly touching her helm for a moment.
"Jolt responding," the bot's voice called back.
"Can any of you think of some reason that cybertronian termites would be on this planet?" Kae asked with a frown.
"What cybermites? Not unless somebot put them there and poured energon on something they want destroyed," Ratchet stated with a frown.
Chance felt the blood drain from his face. Mikaela was silent.
"How do I stop them?" she asked in a soft, scared tone.
"You shoot the swarm-queen," Ironhide's voice shrugged.
That sounded simple enough. They both had cannons. Shoot the swarm-queen, maybe clean up the corpses a bit, get home in time for dinner.
"Okay, and how am I supposed to pinpoint which one it is?" Mikaela growled softly, her optics were glowing as she scanned the ground near their feet, her cannons swinging back and forth somewhat. One receded and she lightly picked him up by the harness, moving him back thirty feet.
As weird as it was, being picked up and placed somewhere else, Chance couldn't say he minded.
The bots only really did that when a human was in danger of something. He trained his rifle on the spot he'd been standing.
"Well, you don't really pinpoint which one it is, you kinda just shoot them 'till they all fall still," Ironhide rumbled cheerfully. "Makes for a great excuse for target practice, even if it's kinda hard on the infrastructure."
"That's not exactly an option Uncle!" Mikaela snarled.
Snarling Kae was strange. Until you realized why she was snarling, the ground erupted five feet from him, and in moments Chance himself was snarling.
Because those things, looked nothing like TERMITES! They looked like miniature burrowing scouts, like the one they'd seen in Egypt. If you could call something the size of your leg miniature! There were hundreds of them!
"We could'a used a bit of warning on how fast these fuckers are!" Chance bellowed in Kae's general direction, knowing her comm would pick up his voice and send it, even as he blasted at the little bastards.
"What the scrap are you two doing on the ground!? GET OUT OF THERE!" Ironhide's voice was bellowing the next second.
Chance glanced over his shoulder at Kae and let out a hoarse shout.
Because as interested as the majority of the swarm seemed to be in the energon in that dam, apparently there were a good number very interested in the energon running through his friend.
She was easily blasting them away, each shot taking no less than two at a time, but that was not the most horrifying of scenes.
Because as fast as she fired at them, there were more getting past.
Crawling straight past the energon source that was fighting back and digging straight into the dam.
"Archangel requesting backup! Now!" Mikaela was shouting, shooting as quickly as her cannons would allow, Chance was firing as furiously as he could, there was a pile of corpses around him by now, but the bastards just kept coming.
"Mikaela! What's happening!?" Ironhide's voice roared.
"The termites are digging into the dam! There's too many of them for Chance and I to hold off!" Mikaela shouted, even as they two continued firing. "Get Moreshower on the line! This dam isn't going to be standing much longer! We need to evacuate everyone downriver!"
Something groaned above him, the sound of abused concrete and metal.
"Chance!" Mikaela shouted. "Chance get into that dam! Evacuate the humans!"
Chance was running the next second, then running in mid-air.
Well, levitation beats rock climbing. He felt his feet hit ground and was running the next second into the control rooms.
The scene he ran in on was straight out of a horror movie.
Three men sat, butchered where they'd stood, the control panels already torn to twisted chunks of metal and plastic. Useless.
He ran back along the dam, the vibrations running through the concrete making balance almost impossible. The termite things began emerging from the concrete, scuttling toward him, menacing him with their little drill-claw things.
Evidently, the tools that had butchered the men inside.
"KAE!" he bellowed. There were way too many for him to hold off up here. Then, then the most blessed feeling.
The second one scurried toward him, he was in the air, drifting down toward Mikaela.
Even as she continued letting off shots. The second his feet touched ground again he was firing.
Then, finally, the ground stilled.
Perhaps a hundred corpses surrounded them.
But that didn't account for the hundred more that had gone past, trickles of water were already leaking from the multitude of holes dug into the base, cracks spidering from hole to hole.
"We can fix it, right?" Chance asked weakly. "I mean, there were only a hundred that went past..."
"Those were the ones that entered through the front," Mikaela stated flatly.
Oh.
Then, then the dam began groaning again. A ripple of energy flashed across it, and Chance stared in awe as Kae lifted her arms.
Using a forcefield to hold it in place.
Five days.
For the first time in his life, Chance blessed his inherent insomnia.
He'd spent the first day making the occasional forage for something to eat. The second arguing with the local Leos. On the fourth day, Mikaela had scared him shitless when she'd gone to a knee, she hadn't spoken at all during that day.
"Chance," she gritted out.
"Mikaela, what's happening, are you okay?" he'd all but babbled.
"Chance... I need... fuel," she'd gasped out.
That had sent him into a flat panic. Where the hell was he supposed to get high grade jet fuel out here!?
"Any fuel!" Mikaela had moaned.
Her arms were shaking.
In a flat panic, Chance ran to the cars.
"We need gas!" Chance had bellowed. "Diesel! Anything!"
"The hell for?" the man demanded flatly.
"Because she's out!" Chance had shouted. Seriously, had the man been paying attention at all!?
"What's that matter?"
"She's holding the fucking dam up! If she passes out-"
The look of horror in the eyes of the men was a relief to say the least. In moments, gasoline was being siphoned from tanks and into jerry cans, one man going so far as to roar off in his pickup, going to the closest town to get more.
The soldier in him followed Kae's instructions to the letter, opening one of the valves in her legs and pouring the fuel in. He could hear her body processing it, watched her straighten slightly as she gained more energy. He'd closed her systems back up again at her word, and she'd lurched to her feet again.
On the fifth day, the horror show was made absolute. Unable to withstand gravity, and it's own weakened integrity, the dam collapsed.
Men were shouting in horror, and Chance had fairly attached himself to Kae's leg, determined to stay with her no matter the cost.
A solid wall of water loomed above them now, held back by a bot who could barely stand.
(OPOV)
Optimus came online slowly at first, until he felt the stress of his mate.
Then, then no stasis lock could ever hope to keep him in place. He was on his feet the next second, summoning his armour and running down the corridor.
The base was damn near deserted.
::. Ratchet!? Ironhide!.:: Optimus roared over the primary.
::. Oh. Good. You're awake youngling. Get your flight deck and get moving.:: Ironhide rumbled flatly, piping co-ordinates to him.
~Kae!~ Optimus sent worriedly through their sparks.
~Hey... love...~ she whispered.
Through their sparks, he knew immediately her position, her situation. Ironhide was sending him the backlog of status updates.
::. Why did you not rouse me?.:: Optimus demanded furiously.
::. Remember last time I aborted your deep stasis recharge?.:: Ratchet sent irritably.
Oh. Right. Ironhide had practically had to carry him in the midst of a retreat. He'd been delirious. Optimus snarled to himself as he integrated into his flight deck as quickly as the transformations could go, fairly running from the building and blasting himself into the air.
Straight for his Kae's position.
(IPOV)
Ironhide threw every ounce of power he had into driving to his niece's co-ordinates.
They were running into a trap, he knew it, they all knew it. No way cybermites would wind up on this planet on their own. No way Energon would wind up in a hydro-electric dam.
::. ETA?.:: Kae asked softly.
::. One hour.:: Ironhide growled.
Over the Primary, every bot could feel her relief at that announcement. She was almost gone. Ratchet was carrying high grade for her, admittedly, there had been some in-betting whether she would get overcharged or not. Bumblebee whipped out of his tailwind again, the little scout fairly flying down the roads.
On the physical level, Ironhide couldn't feel the bot's scans. Nothing registered on his sensors.
Only the continuous feed Bee sent him of his scans gave any hint that the scout was even looking around. Finally, they found the ground they needed.
::. Wheeljack!.:: Ironhide growled.
::. Sir!.::
::. Set up your fields across the narrows of that plain.:: he sent flatly, wishing, again that Optimus was here. Of course this had to turn up when the Primes were supposed to be in deep recharge.
Finally, finally:
::. Ratchet!? Ironhide!.:: Optimus' voice roared.
Ironhide never thought he'd be happy to hear that youngling's angry roar.
::. Oh. Good. You're awake youngling. Get your flight deck and get moving.:: Ironhide rumbled flatly, piping Kae's co-ordinates to the Prime, right along with the status updates he'd been compiling over the past five days. Director Stilson was apparently no longer director, that was a relief, and a new record. Shortest time to get rid of an annoying human. He hadn't allowed them the planes, despite General Moreshower, Director Matteer and Major Lennox individually and as a group shouting at him.
The second Stilson informed them that they couldn't back their Kae up however, Ironhide had growled about Optimus' rule of not harming humans being a useless rule and instead took command.
If they couldn't fly, then they'd roll.
In deference to the need for real speed, the soldiers had stayed behind.
In a breem, fully half of the bots were rolling, Ratchet hot on his bumper and Wheeljack harrying after them as fast as their tires would carry them. Prowl had met them en-route, Sunny, Sides and Bumblebee already well ahead of them. One breem, the sum total of time that Wheeljack needed to scramble to his little workshop and pick up some field generators, and for Ratchet to stock up the medical high grade he brewed himself.
The'd driven for four days straight now, barely stopping for fuel. Bumblebee had come in handy in that moment, the little bot running high speed to the next gas station and waiting for them, card in holoform's hand.
Across the country, the humans who happened to be in the gas stations watched with shock as Bee's holoform would online, scurry from one bot to the next, begin the fuelling sequence in the pumps, run back, close the pumps off again and they'd be off. Bee would promptly run into the station house, pay for the fuel and calm the upset humans that a dozen cars had driven in, fuelled and driven out without the benefit of stopping to pay, or having humans with them.
Then, then Bee would take off and catch up to them again.
Ironhide already had it in his personal logs to remind the Prime to give the scout a commendation. Wheeljack was screeching off the road the next moment the twins hot on his bumper as they rushed to get the emergency fields in place.
Kae had been holding the water back, and the humans had been rushing to evacuate the floodplains, and protect the buildings within them. But if Wheeljack's new generators worked properly, then they'd be able to keep those buildings safe, stem the water flow and empty that dam safely.
Forty of the humans' minutes later, Ironhide looked up in alarm to hear a crashing boom resonate through the heavy atmosphere, then vented a sigh of relief.
Obviously, having a flier for a mate had made Optimus far more skilled at the task.
That sigh of relief came too soon, a wall of water rushed toward them, liquid blue thrashed into a foaming, furious white.
His sensors noted Wheeljack's fields coming online behind them. Well, they'd got one thing right, even if it probably wouldn't count for all that much.
Not without their Primes.
(CdPOV)
The bots were close, Chance was almost ready to breathe a sigh of relief.
He stood beside Kae, doing his level best to keep up a lighthearted, cheerful commentary about life in general. He'd got her to chuckle once or twice, that was good.
But it didn't stop him being terrified on her behalf, he could see her shaking, and just as obviously trying so hard to not shake as she held that wall of water back.
When the emergency was over, he knew he'd never be able to look a 'stopping the tides' joke in the face again. Once again, he ran after one of the lookie-loos, apparently, the spectacle of a bot holding back several thousand tonnes of water with a forcefield was something the common man was dying to see.
The local cops, a couple of whom he'd actually become good acquaintances with by now, were at their wit's end chasing away the rubber-neckers, without fail, there was always someone who figured that nothing would hurt them.
In this case, it was an idiot who seemed to think that he could dive through the forcefield and go swimming. Which he could, technically, but poking holes in a forcefield was just a bad idea. Chance tackled the idiot to the ground, hauled the man to his feet by the shirt collar and dragged him away from the field.
"But I wanna go swimming!" the man protested.
"You. Are a moron, that's two hundred feet of water above you, there's no way in hell that you'll be able to swim to the top in time-"
"I'll just go back out through the field!" the man protested.
"The field isn't going to selectively let a fucking idiot back out again!" Chance bellowed furiously. "What goes in ain't comin' back out again!" he shoved the moron into the grasp of the equally angry Leo's, the cops nodding to him and dragging the man away.
Then, then the worst sound he had ever heard.
"Chance?" Mikaela's voice called out softly. Chance's heart broke, the girl sounded so scared. "Chance get out of here!" Mikaela whimpered, her shaking was becoming far more violent. He looked at the wall of water and froze.
What had been a flat wall, was beginning to bulge.
"Get out!" Chance bellowed at the cops, rangers and civilian gawkers. "It's about to go! RUN!"
It was a riot of panicked humans that scrambled to vehicles.
"I'm staying with you," Chance stated flatly, standing beside his friend.
Mikaela's helm lifted from her chest and looked at the wall. The very motion in itself a Herculean feat.
"Chance!" Mikaela shouted then. "Chance! RUN!"
Chance turned tail and ran, inwardly cursing himself and her.
Because somehow, human or not, he still couldn't defy that command. He jumped into the waiting ranger's truck and couldn't stop the wracking sob that tore out of his chest.
The men around him seemed to understand, taking a road that twisted to the tops of the cliffs. He scrambled out the second the truck screeched to a halt, praying she would get out of there, somehow. For god sake there had to be a way, some small reserve of power in her systems to get her out of danger. Something!
Kae went down on a knee, the forces she'd battled for five days already overcoming her.
The moment he had been dreading for five days finally arrived, the energy of the fields danced across the bulging wall, not unlike the light dancing through water. At any other point it would have been beautiful but for his friend standing beneath that wall.
He felt, more than heard the soft keen of pain as she sagged to her hip, her arms outstretched against the inevitable. Chance forced his eyes to remain open, despite everything in his being screaming against watching his friend swept away by a rush of angry water and rocks.
The swirl of energy across the face of the water became more desperate in it's motions until finally, it was simply gone.
In an eternal moment, that image was burned into his mind.
Mikaela half laid on the ground, looking up with sad resignation at the towering wall of newly freed water as it seemed to take an eternity to begin to fall. And a red and blue blur that appeared out of nowhere, snatching Kae to his chest and curling around her, just as the water swallowed them whole.
(OPOV)
Optimus flew as fast as his boosters would thrust him, racing desperately against the time his Kae's spark said she had left.
Simply because death would not separate them, didn't mean he wanted her to die. They were supposed to have their lifetime together first!
He briefly spotted his weapons master, scout and medic racing along the roads to Kae, and even though his worry felt a surge of pride that his unit had so quickly gone to her aid against the Director's wishes. Evidently he was no longer director now, that was nice.
He prayed that his Kae would hold on for him, just a few moments longer, she would want to know, she would want the opportunity to state that she didn't wish such a fuss raised over her.
And he wanted to tease her, thank her for raising such a fuss and getting the latest annoyance of a director sacked.
He wanted to see his Kae alive to tease the president for picking such an abhorrent succession of humans to act as their liaison. He lost some height as he went over the canyon, moments from his Kae's position.
Optimus had known her position, had known her situation the moment he had roused and felt her distress.
But seeing it firsthand was horrifying.
A massive wall of water bulged not five units from his mate, the last of her forcefields rapidly deteriorating. There was no time to pull her from it's path.
The decision did not require thought, Optimus dove for his mate, snatching her to his chest and winding himself around her protectively as her fields finally disintegrated, his own snapping out to surround them as moments later, their world became dark, heavy.
~You came~ his Kae's spark whispered.
~Always~ he whispered in soft amusement. She had known he was coming, neither of them had known if he would be on time.
~Cutting it a bit close, beloved~ she teased him gently, as his Kae always did.
~Traffic~ he rumbled benignly, making his Kae laugh, keeping her awake, aware. He saw in her recent memories Lieutenant Daniels doing much the same, he would have to thank the man once they were out of this.
As a matter of course, he integrated an energon line into her systems, he could feel it within her spark, she was not far from stasis lock, it would be necessary for her recovery.
~Ratchet is rubbing off on you~ his Kae teased him softly.
~How can he not? He has always had the wellness of our unit in the forefront of his processors.~ Optimus murmured, gently stroking his Kae's face as they two laid down on the rocky stream bed. It was damp still, but he had managed to capture a small bubble of air. Already, he could feel his Kae's awareness drifting toward stasis, feel the weight of the water receding somewhat.
He settled in, comforted by the closeness of his beloved as he prepared to wait out the tides.
(RPOV)
Ratchet scowled as he drove up the embankments toward Lieutenant Daniels. Chance was sitting on the furthest edge of the cliffs, staring down at the water. The man was showing every signal of shock, but the humans around him were doing nothing. Ratchet immediately winked his holoform online, striding to the Lieutenant.
"Get away from that scrapping edge," he growled flatly.
"Ratchet!" the man damn near sobbed, turning and hurling himself onto the medic's holoform. "There's gotta be a way, there's just gotta be! We gotta get them out of there!"
Ratchet frowned and scanned the water. At the bottom there were several energon signatures, mostly cybermites, their signatures showing every indication that they'd shorted out. And the two far larger, familiar signatures of Optimus and Kae. Kae's was somewhat weakened, but all indicators showed that Optimus had already integrated her into his own form of life-support. As far as those two were concerned, they could stay under there for a good few days with no harm.
Maybe a bit of irritation, it was rather damp down there, another hour or so and the water would be drained enough away that they could just walk out.
At the moment, Ratchet was far more concerned about the panicking human.
"Lieutenant Daniels!" Ratchet barked in his best no-nonsense 'stop panicking or your gonna get a wrench to the helm' tone. "At present you are in worse condition than those two! Now quit with the extraneous leaking and drink something!"
"What're we gonna do Ratchet?" Chance asked softly, obediently sipping at the canteen Ratchet had shoved into the man's hands.
"We're gonna get her home, I'm going to hook her up to an energon drip for the next week while she recharges, I'm going to make you sleep for the next three days if I have to drug you to do it, and then we're going to watch with matching smirks as Optimus struggles to not physically harm our former Director Stilson as he tears the man a new access port... oh, and you're going to congratulate your commanding officer, your governments have seen fit to make him a Colonel now."