*Looks around tentatively* Hey... Been a bit longer than usual hasn't it? I'm really sorry about the late update, I'm even going to make an excuse. I hate not updating for awhile especially when I didn't even give anyone who's reading this a heads up :/ Again I'm sorry, but I have the longest chapter I've ever written to make up for the late update.
Thanks again to Crystal Prime for beta reading. For anyone who reads Crystal Prime's story 'Its A Prime Adventure' this next thing I'm going to talk about is not going news to you, but to those who don't read her stories. She and I are having a chapter where our stories crossover, it will be awesome. That is all I can say that isn't classified above top secret *Puts on dark sunglasses and black suit* Nothing to see here... Move along.
anissa - Nice to know you're not mad that it's going to take me awhile to get to writing your idea. But I think you'll like my plan.
KayleeChiara - Doesn't seem incoherent to me :) I am glad that you're enjoying my story. I believe *And always will* that character development was my main weak point, so to hear that you like how I'm treating the characters means that I'm doing something right. Thank you very much. Hopefully I won't take two weeks to update next time.
Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro. I only take credit for my story and my OCs.
Unknown Time
Unknown Place
I pulled one of my swords out of the Decepticon Brute I just offlined and prepared for my next opponents.
Two Decepticon ground soldiers tried double-teaming me. One of them was carrying an Energon Staff, and the other had a katana-like sword that he was swinging towards my helm.
I ducked under the sword-wielding Decepticon's attack and rushed towards the Con with the staff. The Decepticon with the staff tried dodging to his left, but I was too fast.
Within a micro-klick, I had severed the lower half of the Decepticon's servo that held the staff with my left sword, and stabbed the Con through the chestplates and straight into his spark with my right one. He was offlined instantly.
Sensing movement behind me, I swung the sword that was still impaling the Decepticon, and sent his offlined chassis flying into the sword-wielding Con. It slammed into him with enough force to knock him to the ground.
The second Decepticon tossed the offlined chassis of his comrade off him and was back on his pedes in an instant. The Con gave a battle cry and charged at me with his sword held over his helm.
I didn't respond to the Decepticon's words as he charged toward me. I calmly side-stepped his attack and swung a sword at his helm as he ran past. His chassis fell to the ground minus his helm, as well as a servo my sword severed when I swung. I heard the unmistakable sound of a helicopter approaching from behind me just before a charged Plasma Cannon blast hit the right side of my backplates. The blast didn't cause anything more than superficial damage, but the force behind the blast forced me to turn one-hundred eighty degrees and look at my attacker.
A Decepticon using a Pave Low helicopter as his alt mode was my latest attacker judging by the modified Plasma Cannon hanging from the bottom of his alt mode. He changed into his true form while in mid-air and when he landed it shook the ground. The Decepticon looked almost exactly like Blackout from the Transformers film, but Instead of M134 Miniguns on his servos this Con had two tri-barreled Plasma Cannons, and he stood at least four times my height.
"Little Autobot must be destroyed," the Decepticon spoke in a deep baritone voice that lacked an average level of intelligencs. He was just the Brute that was only unleashed to destroy everything in his way.
The Decepticon started charging up his Plasma Cannons, and I began going through my options.
I had fired so many shots over the course of this battle that my energon levels were dangerously low, so I couldn't deploy my Ion Displacer or my Nucleon. I also had long run out of missiles, since I had used my last two on a Decepticon seeker. I had only two options. One, make a break for it and dodge the Con's shots until I found cover. Or, option two, rush the massive Decepticon and attack him from below. Option two seemed like my best chance.
As the Deception continued to charge his Plasma Cannons, I rushed forward and started hacking at everything I was able to get at. Armor, wires, pistions, gears, you name it, I was attacking it with my swords, but it didn't seem to have much of an effect on the colossal being.
"Little Autobot annoying," the Decepticon boomed, and simply punted me away from him.
I was sent sailing through the air and traveled well over a hundred meters before I was stopped by the side of the canyon where the Decepticons and I had been waging our small war.
I was very slow in getting back up. My armor had already been weakened by dozens of Decepticon weapons as they landed countless hits all over my chassis. Hitting the side of the canyon was the last straw. I was now leaking energon from multiple wounds, and my left shoulder-joint was starting to stiffen up from all the abuse this battle had put it through. I tried getting back to my pedes, but my battered frame could only manage to get into a kneeling position. I knew I was starting to go into stasis lock when my optics began to close against my will.
A few Decepticons that were watching my battle with the titan from the sidelines saw this and laughed cruelly. One of them said something I couldn't hear, but I somehow knew it was directed toward me.
I don't know what the Con said, but I suddenly felt white hot rage build up within me, and I heard myself give a primal roar of anger. I was back on my pedes in an instant and was no longer in full control of my chassis. I ignored the Decepticon that just punted me, and searched for the Con who had spoken. The nano-klick I saw the Decepticons standing off to the side, I rushed toward them at a far greater speed than I should have been able to obtain.
The Decepticons looked at me in pure terror as I approached. Some of them even ran in the opposite direction in an attempt to flee, but that wouldn't save them.
I leapt into the air with both my swords raised over my helm in preparation for offlining the nearest Decepticon... it was at this moment that I onlined.
July 5, 2012 5:11 A.M
Autobot base, outside Jasper, Nevada
I sat bolt-upright in my berth while I instinctually deployed one of my swords. A few micro-klicks of sitting on my berth and looking around later, I realized that I just had a very vivid dream. It was a good thing that Wildwing was with Arcee last solar-cycle, my sudden movement would have shaken him from recharge. He would have been terrified if he saw me sitting upright with one of my swords deployed for no reason.
I returned my servo to normal while I got up off the berth and walked to my desk. My internal clock read that it was only a few klicks before I usually onlined for the cycle anyway, so there was no reason for me to just sit on my berth.
Picking up one of my cubes from the desk, I put it under the dispenser so it would fill with energon. As the dispenser started to fill my cube, I puzzled over the dream I just had.
Dreams are a regular occurrence in both the human race as well as the Cybertronian race. I was one of the few that had dreams as both races. When I became a Cybertronian several jours ago, and Ratchet explained Cybertronian physiology to me, he also explained how our dreams were different from those of my former race.
Human dreams are very rarely clear. Most of the time their dreams are a jumbled mess of information that their subconscious mind is feeding to them based from the day's events. Humans often don't even know they are dreaming until the dream is over and they wake up, or in most cases they don't even remember they had a dream.
Cybertronian dreams, however, are virtually the opposite of human dreams. Instead of a jumbled mess of information, Cybertronians have very clear and ordered dreams that review certain situations from the previous cycle. Or, in some cases, they relive memories both sad and happy from an earlier time in their lives. Sparkmated Cybertronians share their dreams, and also have the ability to experience and relive each other's memories while they dream. If they want to, they can relive these memories from their sparkmate's point of view, and feel what they felt when that memory occurred.
I noticed that the dispenser had filled my cube and automatically turned itself off, a feature that prevented any energon being wasted.
I took a sip from my now full cube and went back to pondering my dream. The strangest thing about my dream was just how real it seemed to be. I felt my swords slicing through the armor of the Decepticons in my dream. I felt the pain of the Plasma Cannon blast and impacting the side of the canyon, and the feeling of energon leaking out of my frame was still fresh in my CPU.
But most of all, I had felt the primal rage at the very end of the dream. When that rage surged up within me at the end, I had no control. Normally that wouldn't bother me since it was a dream and you usually don't have control over dreams, but I had full control over my movements up until that moment. Why was that dream so life-like? Why did I completely lose control when that last Decepticon spoke? What had the Con even said that got me so enraged? Was the Decepticon really talking to me?
I shook my helm, thinking about what a fake Decepticon said in my dream was like arguing against Optimus' logic, pointless. I waited until I finished my cube and set it back on the desk before I left my quarters and headed for the washracks.
The hallway was unsurprisingly empty when I left my quarters. I looked directly accross the hall at the control panel of Arcee's quarters. It seemed that she and Wildwing were still recharging since the light on the control panel was red.
'Good, there won't be a repeat of last mega-cycle's incident,' I thought, as I walked toward the washracks. Not much had happened since I accidently caught Arcee in the washracks. There had only been one skirmish with the Cons over some energon and a small weapons cache. Optimus, Bulkhead, Prowl and Bumblebee won the skirmish and recovered the energon and weapons cache. There were only a couple dozen energon storage crates and just few Neutron Assault Rifles that still worked, so the spoils of that skirmish weren't significant.
I noticed I was getting close to the washracks and walked off to the side before the door opened. Arcee may be recharging, but I didn't know where Moonracer was, and as much Ratchet would deny it he would be uber-pissed if I saw Moonracer in the washrack. Not to mention Moonracer herself being uber-pissed if I saw her in the washrack.
I leaned against the wall outside the washrack as the door automatically opened. "Hello? anyone in there?" I called around the corner. Complete silence was the only response. Now that I knew no one was in the washracks, I stepped around the corner, picked a stall off to the side and turned on the water.
Forty klicks later, I snapped the last piece of my recently cleaned armor back into place as I left the washracks. I had taken more time in the washrack than usual simply because I enjoyed showers. Knowing it was almost my turn to watch Wildwing, I started walking toward the ops center.
I saw Prowl step out of the bot-sized elevator with a data pad in his servo, and then walk right by me as he headed towards his own quarters.
It had almost been two jours since Prowl and Moonracer joined us on Earth. In that time I had never seen Prowl smile, make a joke, laugh even slightly, or leave base just to go for a relaxing drive. Prowl was a hidden enigma. To most who spoke with the black and white mech he was just stoic and incredibly serious all the time. But to me, that in itself begged the question of why. I got the feeling that an event in Prowl's life was the cause of all his seriousness and complete disinterest with anything except reports and keeping order at base.
I continued walking toward the ops center and made a mental note to ask Prowl at some point why he was so stoic all the time. I heard the sounds of a race being played in the Xbox from the ops center and as I got closer I heard a crash followed by an outburst.
"Damn it Miko! Stop sending me into the wall!" the frustrated voice of Jack yelled.
'Wildwing better not be within hearing distance for his sake,' I thought. The phrase 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned' applied to the Cybertronian race as well, Arcee and Moonracer were no exception. Curse once within a hundred meters of Wildwing, and you will find yourself on the receiving end of their wrath. Ratchet had done this a few solar-cycles ago. After he was scolded by Moonracer and Arcee out of Wildwing's hearing range, he hadn't uttered a single curse, not even when Wildwing was recharging.
"But it's so much fun to make people crash," I heard Miko reply to Jack's words in a smug tone. She would try and send everyone into the wall when playing Forza, but since Jack would get frustrated the easiest by hitting the wall, she made a considerable effort to send Jack into the wall as much as possible.
I entered the ops center and saw that Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Raf were watching Jack and Miko play each other. Ratchet was standing at the workstation and was looking annoyed by the yelling between Miko and Jack. Jack spoke again as I started walking over to watch the race between Miko and him.
"It's not how you play the game though," Jack argued. This was their usual conversation when they played Foza. It would start when Miko sent Jack into the wall, then Jack would then get frustrated about how much Miko cheated. It would usually stop at that, at least until Miko sent Jack into the wall again and then they would repeat.
An alarm sounded from the workstation before I had finished walking over to the others. I stopped and changed direction to walk toward Ratchet and the workstation.
"Peculiar," I heard Ratchet say under his breath. He started typing commands into the workstation as I stepped up next to him.
The face of Agent Fowler appeared on the main screen. Judging from the background noise, he must have been sitting in a helicopter.
"Prime!" Agent Fowler yelled almost immediately. He looked at Ratchet and I for a few micro-klicks before speaking again. "Where's Prime?" he asked with a bit of urgency in his voice.
"He is in his quarters, Agent Fowler," Ratchet responded formally, but I could hear the annoyance he was trying to keep out of his voice.
The others had just enough time to join us at the workstation before Fowler spoke again.
"Well then, I'll just have to talk with him in person, this is call has to be short. I'm certain you remember that terrorist group, MECH. Well, I've finally found someone who's heard of them, and you all need to hear what he has to say about MECH's leader. He and I are riding aboard his personal helicopter on the way to your base. Our ETA is twenty minutes. Fowler out," the government agent cut the link on his end.
"That was rude, he barely even let you say anything!" Miko said, and narrowed her eyes at the part of the screen Fowler had just occupied.
I turned to look at Miko, "He did say that his call had to be short," I said with a shrug.
"We need to inform the others of Agent Fowler's incoming vist," Ratchet said with obvious displeasure directed at the government agent, even if Fowler wasn't here yet. His optics dimmed slightly, which meant that he had opened a private channel with someone, likely Optimus or Moonracer.
I was about to comm-link Arcee when I felt the small form of Wildwing climb up my pedes and backplates and came to rest on top of my helm.
"Hi!" he said enthusiastically as he appeared in the top of my vision. Climbing on to my helm was now a regular occurrence for Wildwing when he entered the ops center. It wasn't like he was doing anything harmful. I had to admit that it was funny, so I let him climb on my helm when he wanted.
I chuckled before looking up at the mechling. "Hello Wildwing, how was your recharge?" I asked, as I offered a servo to Wildwing so he could get back down.
"Great! Arcee told me a story before I went into recharge!" Wildwing said happily, and climbed on to my servo
Arcee stepped next to me as I set Wildwing on the catwalk in front of the workstation. The mechling quickly ran over to Miko as she stood next to Jack and Raf.
"Two things Arcee," I began, and looked at her. "First, Agent Fowler contacted us saying he finally found someone who's heard of that human terrorist group you encountered a few mega-cycles ago. Agent Fowler and this person he found are going to arrive at base in about twenty klicks. Second, what story did you tell Wildwing? It looks like he's telling it to Miko, Raf and Jack as well," I said, and watched the silver and blue seekerlet describe something to the humans.
"I hope that whoever Fowler is bringing to base can tell us where MECH came from. They could be a real problem. As for the story I told him, well, when I was a sparkling, my sisters used to tell me this story called 'Guardian Prime'. It's about a fictional Prime that sacrifices himself to save an alien world from destruction. It was one of the most popular sparkling stories back before the war. He apparently had never heard it before," Arcee said, and put a servo on her hip as she watched Wildwing tell the humans the story she told him earlier.
"Well, it seems that he liked it," I said, as Wildwing started making gestures with his servos as he told the story to the humans.
Arcee and I watched Wildwing tell the story to Miko, Jack and Raf until Optimus, Prowl and Moonracer entered the ops center.
"Ratchet tell you that Fowler is coming here?" I asked Optimus, as he went to stand to off to my right.
"Yes," the Prime said to me simply, and looked at Miko, Jack, Raf and Wildwing. "It would be best if you were not present while we speak with Agent Fowler, especially Wildwing. You will need to avoid the ops center for the time being," Optimus said to them. He then walked over Ratchet and began a conversation with the medic that likely was about our impending visit from Fowler.
Seeing that this wasn't something that could be argued, the humans and Wildwing got off the catwalk and started walking toward the hallway.
As Wildwing followed the humans out of the ops center, there weren't any sounds other than his narrative as he told the humans the story Arcee told him. Optimus and Ratchet were the only ones who spoke as we waited for the proximity sensor to signal the arrival of Agent Fowler and his guest. It wasn't long before an alarm sounded from the workstation. Fowler was here.
Ratchet tapped a single key on the workstation and the main screen began to show a live feed from a security camera up topside.
A Pave Low helicopter of the same model as to the one in my dream was in the process of landing on the helicopter pad. But that was the only similarity this helicopter shared with the one from my dream.
The Pave Low was colored black, almost the same shade of my armor, midnight black. The angles on the helicopter were sharper, as if they were designed to limit the radar cross section of the massive helicopter, like a F-117 Nighthawk only on a larger scale. The strangest thing about the helicopter was that instead of having fuel tanks strapped to either side of the Pave Low, there were unusual looking missile pods. Along the side the missile pods were high-caliber autocannons, likely chambered with twenty or thirty millimeter rounds. The immense transport helicopter was more heavily armed than most fast attack helicopters. Overall, the helicopter breathed an 'Don't mess with me' air that would strike terror into those that opposed it, and inspire its allies while telling them that rescue had just arrived.
As the helicopter landed, I narrowed my optics at the screen and I could faintly see the initials 'S.T.F 141' painted just below the tail rotor. I didn't have time to ponder what that could mean before the helicopter finally landed. Almost immediately two human silhouettes appeared from the back ramp while the rotors were still winding down over their heads.
I recognized Agent Fowler's silhouette, but the other was unfamiliar. I could tell by his posture that he was a military man through and through. He kept his back straight as an arrow while he followed Agent Fowler toward the human elevator. Each step he took was measured and precise.
"This should be interesting," Arcee commented, as the two humans disappeared out of the camera's sight and Ratchet cut the feed.
"Indeed," I said in response, as I turned to watch the elevator approach.
The elevator stopped at our level. Agent Fowler stepped out and was followed by a man who made me stiffen and flinch ever so slightly when I recognized him. My reaction to seeing the human Fowler brought to base was almost impossible for a human to see, but I saw Arcee give me a look that said she saw my reaction.
The person who stepped out of the elevator with Fowler was only a hair shorter than the government agent standing at about six foot three. He appeared to be in his mid to late fifties with a chevron mustache that was starting to fade from its original brown color to grey. He wore a standard army ACU with two shoulder-patches identifying him as a member of the Airborne. A black beret with three silver stars on the front of it that both signified his rank of a lieutenant general, and covered his greying brown hair that was in a buzz cut. A holster -that held a .44 Magnum- was strapped to his hip, alongside two pouches that could either hold ammo for the massive handgun on his hip or some small electric devices.
"Autobots, this is Lieutenant General Lance Shepherd," Fowler said to all of us and gestured to the man next to him.
I didn't need the introduction Fowler gave to know who was standing next to the government agent. General Shepherd was a character from Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, someone who shouldn't exist in this reality, someone who I wasn't sure if we could trust. But I couldn't say anything without having to explain my origins to the general, so I just kept up my best poker face and stayed silent.
Agent Fowler continued, "General Shepherd, these are the Autobots. Optimus Prime, their leader. Prowl, their SIC. Ratchet, their chief medical officer and engineer. Moonracer, their second medic and primary sniper. Arcee, their TIC. Shadowstreaker, their heavy weapons specialist and currently their only triple-changer. Bulkhead, their armorer. And Bumblebee, their scout." Fowler pointed at each of us when he said our names. We had told Fowler of my origins and new name not long after Megatron was offlined, so I wasn't surprised when he introduced me to the general by my Cybertronian name. "I'll let you take it from here general," Fowler said to Shepherd, and walked off to the side.
General Shepherd stepped up the railing and looked at each of us with intelligent ice-blue eyes. "It's an honor to meet you all," he said honestly. He sounded just like the actor who voiced him in the game, Lance Henriksen.
"Likewise general," Optimus said, and gave the general a polite nod. "Now, I was informed that you know of the human group called MECH?" he asked, likely wanting to know everything that the general knew about the terrorist group.
Shepherd opened one of the pouches next to the .44 Magnum on his hip, and pulled out a device similar to a smart phone or PDA, but smaller since it fit neatly into his palm. "Would it be possible to link this to your main screen?" the general asked Ratchet, and held up the device in his hand.
Ratchet took a few steps closer to the general and scanned the device in the human's hand. To Shepherd it looked like he was making sure the device would work with our computer systems, I could tell that Ratchet was actually making sure there were no viruses in the device.
"Yes, yes, I believe so," Ratchet said to the general without his usual annoyance. He walked over to the workstation andtyped in a few commands. A moment later, the main screen changed its background to a simple desktop that only had labled files on it. Ratchet had linked Shepherd's device to the main screen.
"Thank you Ratchet." General Shepherd said gratefully, missing the slightly surprised look on the medic's facplate at being thanked. Shepherd pulled a pen out of his already opened pouch that looked like it belonged with the device in his hand. "Before I start talking about MECH, there are a few things I need to inform you of," Shepherd said, and tapped the screen of his PDA.
The main sceen changed from a desktop to a old news report about an attack on a military base in the middle-east, Shepherd continued. "As you already know, the Decepticons attacked one of our military bases three years ago. Five hundred and thirty-six men were killed. That number would have been far higher if you Autobots hadn't come to our defense. The Pentagon didn't want an attack like that to happen again. They made me the commanding officer of the newly reformed 141st Special Operations Division, which they renamed 'The Special Tasks Force of the 141st Division' or abbreviated 'S.T.F 141' for short. The members of S.T.F 141 are multi-national consisting of special forces groups from multiple countries. Apart from combat, our primary field is technological research, armor, aircraft, warships, alternative fuels and weapons. We are particularly interested in researching effective human weapons against Decepticon forces," Shepherd paused and looked up at Optimus. He was waiting to see if Prime would be angry that humans were making weapons that were effective against the Decepticons. We were the same race as the Cons, any human weapon effective against them would be effective against us.
I was torn between being angry at my former race for lying to us and making weapons that potentially could harm us, or being proud of them for wanting to defend themselves from the Cons.
Optimus spoke to the general in a neutral tone. "We advised your government not to get involved in our war. The fact your government has made effective weapons against the Decepticons can only mean that they wish to become involved." Optimus' voice held no anger, he's never one to lose his temper.
"I said effective human weapons Optimus Prime. Even the lowest quality armor you have makes titanium look like wet paper, and compared to the firepower the smallest of your weapons pack, our rifles might as well be shooting spit-balls. The U.S government and the few other governments that know of your existence doesn't want to get fully involved. The multi-national S.T.F 141 is the most involvement their willing to get themselves into." General Shepherd's response was almost on par with Optimus' in how calm it was.
"Nevertheless, this is our war not yours. The human race is still trying to sort their own differences. Getting involved in a war that predates your own history more than a thousand fold could very well destroy your species." Optimus argued calmly, I could tell he cared more about the humans wanting to get involved with our war than the weapons they were developing.
"Earth is the cradle of humanity. We want to defend our home. The human race will fight wars even when we know we cannot win them. We're stubborn like that," Shepherd countered Optimus' words, again with a calm that was similar to the Prime's.
'What is this? Battle of the epic voices?' I thought, as I looked back and forth between Optimus and General Shepherd. Neither of them had changed the level of their voices or their tones, and both were adamant in their opinions. Optimus was against human involvement in our war with the Decepticons, while General Shepherd wanted humanity to at least assist in defending Earth even with their technological disadvantage.
"Those five hundred and thirty six human casualties from the Decepticon attack on your military base will be a mere fraction of the casualties the human race will sustain if you enter our war," Optimus said, obviously concerned that the human race could find itself involved in a war worse than any they had faced before.
General Shepherd paused as he seemed mull over Optimus' words. "Casualties are a part of war, everyone in the S.T.F 141 are ready to die defending our world. As for how many casualties we sustain, we have learned since the Decepticons attacked us three years ago," Shepherd said, and worked for a moment on the PDA he held.
The main screen was now showing a picture of what looked like UCAV, but I didn't recognize the model. The UCAV was the same shade of black as the Pave Low topside. It was made for stealth. Next to the aircraft on the screen was a picture of an adult human for scale. Judging by how small the human was compared to the UCAV, the plane had a wingspan of about two hundred feet.
Shepherd spoke again. "This is the X-47C, it's an unmanned aircraft that can hold enough missiles to start its own war. We can adapt its payload for an air superiority mission, ground support or simply just drop bombs. S.T.F 141 has thirty of these currently in service, with another thirty in production." General Shepherd didn't have much more to say about the X-47 and tapped the screen on his PDA again.
The main screen changed again. Now it showed a picture of a bulky rifle. A large ammo-drum was fitted behind the trigger of the rifle in a bullpup configuration, an ACOG scope was attached to a rail on the top of the rifle. The rifle had what looked like a miniature version of the missile pods I had seen on General Shepherd's Pave Low strapped under the barrel like a M203.
"An underslung missile launcher? Isn't that a bit impractical?" I asked Shepherd with a raised optic ridge. I was being polite since I had no clue if this General Shepherd was like his counterpart in Modern Warfare 2, and was secretly planning to betray us.
General Shepherd looked at me in slight surprise. "You saw the missile pods on my helicopter," he said, more of a statement than a question.
I nodded, "Yes, strange things to have on a transport helicopter general." I put my servos behind my backplates after I said this.
"Usually it wouldn't even be possible with that model helicopter. But thanks to some modifications we made to the engine, we can fit a number of weapons on any type of helicopter with the same modifications," Shepherd said to me. Then he turned back to the screen and said, "The rifle you see on screen has been designated the 'M-320A' by our S.F.T 141 engineers. Its primary ammunition is 7.62 by 53 mm sabot rounds loaded into an eighty round drum. Thanks to a few plates of Decepticon armor we recovered, we have found that sabot rounds are reasonably effective against their low-end armor, but still require unloading the entire drum into the same armor piece to do any noticeable damage. As Shadowstreaker already saw, the M-320A also had an underslung micro-missile launcher that holds eight missiles. Each missile could take out any un upgraded human tank in existence, but only when these missiles number in the dozens can they damage Decepticon armor."
Arcee asked the General a question. "From what I understand about human weapons, your ammunition has significant weight. Doesn't the extra weight from the ammo weigh down human soldiers who carry that weapon?" I could tell she was genuinely curious.
Shepherd nodded. "If the sabot rounds were made out of lead, copper, tungsten or any other human metal then yes, it would weigh the soldier that carries it, but we recently discovered a new type of metal in the Earth's crust." General Shepherd tapped the screen of his PDA with the pen again.
The new image on the main screen was of a piece of bright silver metal. "We call it Adamantium. It's only a tenth of the weight of titanium while being five times the tensile strength, and three times as resistant to heat. We use it in tank and aircraft armor, ammunition, engines and the manufacturing of weapons, " Shepherd explained to Arcee just before Bulkhead asked the general his own question.
"I know this tech is advanced for humans and everything, but when are you going to talk about MECH?" Bulkhead's tone was impatient and bored.
Optimus gave Bulkhead a disapproving look for his rudeness before General Shepherd answered the Wrecker's question.
"I was going to get to that in a few minutes, but I guess I can speed things up," Shepherd said, and tapped the screen of his PDA a few times.
A micro-klick later, the main screen was showing a green beret's service record. The green beret had short silver hair and dark brown almost black eyes. I got a bad vibe from him just by looking at his picture.
"This, is former Army First Lieutenant Clancy Arkeville. He joined the S.T.F 141 approximately one year ago. He had the commanding officers of S.T.F 141 concerned about his behavior ever since. He tried on multiple occasions to perform his own experiments on the pieces of Decepticon armor we use for weapons tests. He failed every time and because he was loved by those under his command and he was very good at his job, little disciplinary action was taken against him... Something that we came to regret six months ago."
I could see Shepherd struggle to hold back the anger he held toward the man on the screen out of his voice as he continued, "The last time he attempted to experiment on the Decepticon armor, he was caught by a night watchmen. The night watchmen knew of Clancy's various attempts to experiment on the Decepticon armor, so he didn't bother to handcuff him since this was a regular occurrence." Shepherd paused for a moment, and when he spoke he kept his voice very calm, but the anger in his voice was clear as day. "However, when the night watchmen's back was turned, Clancy snapped his neck. He died almost instantly. As Clancy had killed the night watchmen, those under his command were stealing what equipment that wasn't locked up. They stole seven helicopters and enough M-320s to equip two companies of soldiers. Clancy had been planning this for months, before he and everyone under his command vanished. Clancy left this recording." Shepherd tapped the screen on his PDA again.
The voice that spoke held a fanatical tone that was blinded by greed and ambition. "Shepherd, there's a war brewing... A war between the new world order... And the newest world order. A war in which the victor will be the side with the most innovative technology. The peace between us and the... Aliens can't last, it won't last. These machines outclass us in almost everything. We need to make the first move, we need to know how they work... We need our own machines on our side. When the war inevitably begins, I will be our savior. I will lead us to victory. Don't try and stop me Shepherd, and don't try to send your pitbulls after us. I am Silas leader of MECH and we are going to save the world." The recording ended.
I could practically feel the anger emitting from my fellow Autbots. This self-proclaimed savior of the human race was a psychopath. A psychopath that wanted nothing more than to pick Cybertronians apart so he could find out how we work, and then create his own drones to attack any Cybertronian they see.
I shrugged off the protective feeling in my spark and bit back the growl working its way out my throat when I thought about what Clancy would do to Arcee if MECH captured her. I really need to get over my stupid crush on her.
"How could you keep a mentally disturbed soldier in your ranks?" Prowl asked, with a trace of disgust in his voice that was directed at the now identified MECH leader.
General Shepherd spoke calmly, but with an underlined tone of frustrated anger. "His psychological profile was spotless. We detected no issues what-so-ever with him before he joined S.T.F 141. It was only after he learned of the nature of our work that we started to suspect that he wasn't right in the head." The general shook his head regrettably after he said this.
Moonracer spoke up for the first time since General Shepherd arrived at base. "While there are other things of more significant importance that Clancy spoke of, but what did he mean by, 'Don't try to send your pitbulls after us' general?" she asked with a curious look on her faceplate.
General Shepherd looked at her in slight relief at the temporary change of subject. "Clancy was referring to 'Shadow Company', my hand-picked choices for the very best in the S.T.F 141. I only give the most important assignments to them," he sounded proud of his hand-picked unit.
"How many soldiers are in this 'Shadow Company'?" Bulkhead asked, as he leaned against the catwalk near the Xbox.
"Never more or less than one hundred and sixty," General Shepherd answered, still looking as if he was relieved that we weren't talking about Clancy. He must have felt guilty about the death of that night watchmen.
"And how many followed Clancy?" Optumus asked, knowing that we needed to get back on the current subject.
General Shepherd looked back up at the Prime. "One hundred and twenty followed Clancy when he formed MECH. I have been sending Shadow Company after every lead and hunch we can track down or come up with, but everyone in the S.T.F is trained to stay off the grid. We're chasing ghosts, which is why the Pentagon orders that you help in bring MECH to justice." Shepherd spoke in a tone suggesting that he was reciting orders from a superior he didn't like very much.
"We have enough problems fighting the Decepticons. Why would we hunt down a human terrorist group? And what makes you think you can order us to do this?" Ratchet asked angerily.
I saw Agent Fowler roll his eyes out of my peripheral vision as he stepped toward the railing next to Shepherd. "In the words of our esteemed Director of National Intelligence, Theodore Galloway, 'The Autobots owe us for keeping their existence a secret from the public. The very least they can do as a favor is fix our MECH problem. If the Autobots don't want to fix our problem, we'll just order them too.' I don't even know how that guy even got his job," Fowler said, clearly disliking his superior.
It took a considerable effort for me to keep from cringing at the mention of Theodore Galloway. When I was still human, that man had my entire circle of friends wanting to punch his lights out for his stupidity and arrogance after we all saw Revenge of The Fallen.
Shepherd looked at the government agent next to him. "He got his job from being a kiss-ass and a pencil pusher. That man wouldn't survive a single day in the field," Shepherd's own dislike of Galloway was in his voice, but his tone was a bit more reserved.
"Despite what your director of intelligence believes, we Autobots are not under the command of the U.S government. I argee that Clancy and his followers must be stopped. But our fight against the Decepticons is far too important to be hampered by hunting for a group of humans who are very good at staying hidden." Optimus spoke in a neutral voice as he addressed the two humans.
Shepherd turned his attention back to Optimus. "We know that we can't order you to do anything Prime. All I will ask of you is that you inform S.T.F when you encounter MECH." General Shepherd turned his PDA off and returned it to the pouch next to his handgun after he said this.
"What about your Director Galloway? Won't he be displeased with you for not following his orders?" I asked the two humans, trying to sound as if I had never heard of the man and didn't know what his reaction would be.
"I've personally pissed him off enough to not give a damn about what he says anymore. All Galloway will do to me for a punishment is try and bury me in paperwork." Agent Fowler said in response, just before Shepherd answered my question as well.
"Galloway isn't very popular among any members of the S.T.F. I don't follow his orders to the letter. But my Second in Command that Galloway would replace me with if he fired me would probably spit in his face if he ordered my SIC to do almost anything." Shepherd knew Galloway just wanted to feel as if he was in charge, so he entertained the idoit. If Galloway tried to replace Shepherd, he wouldn't have any say in what the S.T.F did, even though he didn't have much say in the first place.
"I find your request to be more reasonable, General. If we encounter MECH forces in our fight against the Decepticons we will contact you, General Shepherd," Optimus said.
Shepherd nodded gratefully, "That is all I ask Prime. I've told you everything I know about MECH and their goals. Now I need to get back to my own base. We'll be in contact in the future, Optimus." General Shepherd started walking back to the elevator with Fowler right behind him after he said this.
After Shepherd and Agent Fowler entered the elevator and started moving toward the helicopter pad, Arcee turned to me.
"You knew who General Shepherd was before Agent Fowler even told us his name, didn't you?" Arcee's question caught the attention of the other Autobots as well.
I kept looking at the elevator Agent Fowler and Shepherd just left in as I answered. "Yes, I knew who he was the moment he walked out of the elevator. He was a character in a video game from my original reality called 'Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2'. His character betrayed the player near the end of the game."
"How and why did he betray you in the game?" Bumblebee asked, sounding a bit surprised that someone who was fiction in my original reality was a real person here. Ironic, considering he along with everyone else in the room was fiction in my original reality.
I noticed that the others were waiting for me to answer as well when I looked at Bumblebee. "One of the last missions in the game was to attack a safehouse of -at the time of the mission- the main antagonist of the story and hoped to kill him there. The person you were looking for wasn't at the safehouse, but his playbook for all his operations was there on a computer. After the player downloaded the information on a DSM and ran to the extraction point, Shepherd killed the player character and everyone with him so he could get the glory of finding the DSM instead of the soldier who found it. I would have said this earlier, but Shepherd was right there and he might not be like his counterpart in the game." Everyone seemed to digest my words for a few klicks.
Optimus broke the silence. "While this information is alarming, we can't be certain of General Shepherd's personal motivations. We will keep a close optic on him for now, but this potential alliance with the S.T.F is promising and we cannot judge the General by his actions in a different reality."
"Are you seriously considering allowing the humans to fight the Decepticons? Not only are they at a serious disadvantage in terms of technology. But they won't even be able take down a single Con without a company of their soldiers getting slaughtered." Ratchet looked at Optimus incredulously as he said this.
"I am Ratchet. I will have to see how they plan to fight the Decepticons with their newer technology before I decide, but there is a possiblity I will agree for them to fight alongside us." Optimus spoke with a thoughtful expression on his faceplate.
"If it helps you in your decision, Optimus, there was an alliance between the humans and the Autobots in the movies I told you about." I said with a shrug.
Optimus nodded at my words and kept the thoughtful expression on his faceplate as he started walking out of the ops center over to the entrance tunnel. He was going for a drive.
I turned to Arcee after Optimus went for his drive. "Would you mind helping me find Wildwing and the humans? It's been awhile since we started talking with Fowler and Shepherd. There are a lot of places they could be." I began to walk down the hallway I had seen them go down just before Fowler arrived.
Arcee nodded her helm and started following me down the hallway. "Of course, there's a spot near the armory that Wildwing likes to climb. He might have taken the humans there," she suggested.
Arcee and I continued in silence as we walked toward the armory. I took the time to ponder what the existence of General Shepherd and Galloway in this reality could mean. Were there other characters from other movies or games here? And if there are other fictional characters here, who are they? Would they be people I've heard of? Or would I not even know when I met one of them?
"You seem deep in thought," Arcee said, giving me a side-ways glance as we walked past my quarters and continued.
"I was wondering if there could be other people in this reality who were fiction in my original one," I responded.
"Don't we Cybertronians count?" Arcee joked.
"Of course, but I meant whether there were people who shouldn't even be in this reality. I know of two people who weren't in this reality. This reality had nothing to do with General Shepherd or Theodore Galloway." We past the washracks as I said this.
Arcee looked at me with a bit of curiosity. "Galloway wasn't in the cartoon from your reality?" she asked.
I shook my helm. "No, he was involved with the Transformers franchise, but he only appeared in one of the movies, the second movie to be precise."
"Is Galloway as bad as Fowler and General Shepherd were saying?" Arcee asked.
I sighed before replying. "Worse. You know that alliance I told Optimus about? Well, he tried to shut it down several times. In the second movie Optimus was temporarily offlined, and Galloway basically had the other Autobots arrested while he was offline. The man is power hungry and like Shepherd said, a pencil pusher. I don't know how I would react to meeting Galloway in person." My tone clearly showed my displeasure toward the human.
Arcee took a few micro-klicks to reply. "I guess I should be grateful that Fowler is our liaison with the U.S government instead of Galloway," she said, looking shocked by the events of the second movie and by Galloway's actions in it.
"Yes, we should be grateful for that," I said in agreement.
Arcee and I didn't speak anymore after my response. We just walked to the armory. Wildwing was near the armory with the humans as Arcee had said. Arcee and I parted ways after I started my turn watching Wildwing. That was sixteen breems ago. Now I was sitting at my desk.
I finished off my last cube of the cycle as I sat in a chair with my pedes on the desk.
I heard Wildwing shift position as he recharged on my berth. After I started watching him, Wildwing had spent most of the cycle climbing the wall in the obstacle course.
The wall in the obstacle course was the one thing at base that he had real trouble climbing. The only way I allowed him to try climbing the wall was when I hovered under him in my F-22 mode so I could catch him if he slipped.
Wildwing had tried climbing the wall so much that he fell into recharge as he was walking toward the wall to try again. I had returned to my quarters so he could recharge properly about three breems ago. I'd been looking at the human news through the internet since then.
The group of teenage hackers whose hard drives I uploaded to the FBI had finally been sentenced in a public trial earlier in the cycle. They were tried as adults, and sentenced to thirty years behind bars. I watched the highlights of the newscast.
It turns out that the teenagers had filthy rich parents with very expensive lawyers that delayed the trial for almost two jours. When I heard what their defense was I found out why they delayed the trial... And I laughed out loud.
To quote the leader of the hacker group 'The virus that uploaded our hard drives planted the evidence.' That was seriously their best defense.
The one innocent teenager, Andrew, testified against the others. He told of how he was being blackmailed by the group, and how the 'Virus' took out each of their computers and left his computers untouched.
I liked the part where he asked to speak off the record for a moment. His words were. "I wanted to thank the person, whoever they are, for getting me out of that situation. I still would be in that situation if it wasn't for you."
The next part of the trial highlights was a public statement by the FBI. Surprisingly, I recognized the agent holding the press conference. His name was Aaron Hotchner and he was on a TV show called Criminal Minds from my original reality.
"We are pleased that justice has finally been served to these misguided youths. While I cannot thank the person behind the unexpected uploading of their hard drives, I admit that catching them would have been much more difficult." The highlights of the newscast became a few biased people discussing if the teenager's sentence was too much, so I cut it at after Hotchner spoke.
'How many people that I once believed were fictional are real now?' I asked myself as I set my empty cube on the desk. This was such a strange cycle, first I meet General Shepherd, then I saw the real-life Aaron Hotchnre on TV. Next I'm going to have a drink with James Bond and Jason Bourne.
Since Wildwing was occupying my berth, I crossed my servos over my chestplates and tried to fall into recharge as I sat in the chair. It didn't take me long to get into a deep recharge... But things never are that simple are they?
I was standing in the desert again, and in the same spot that Sam Witwicky had been standing when I spoke to him more than four jours ago.
'Wonder what he's been up to in his reality?' I thought, as I looked over the area I was standing in. I was alone, just like the last time I was here, but I could feel Solus through the parental bond we shared. She was quite a fair distance off to my right and she was happy that our bond was open again.
'Don't really have anywhere else to go' I thought, as I started walking toward Solus and sent my own feelings of happiness through the bond.
I walked through the boulders that surrounded the area where I arrived and continued. The desert was now dramatically different from the area I talked with Sam.
There were virtually no boulders, instead the desert was almost flat and everywhere I looked I only saw white sand. It was strange to see such a quick change in scenery, but it was a desert and the terrain could shift at any time.
I kept walking through the desert until I reached another field of boulders. The boulders were different from the area I arrived, each pillar of rock was etched with runes of the language of the Primes. I couldn't understand what any of the runes said, only Primes could, but I recognized the style.
Following my parental bond with Solus, I criss-crossed through the boulders. Something out of my peripheral vision made me turn slightly to look at it. Two carved rock statues of Cybertronians locked in battle was what caught my optic.
One of the statues was carved out of a white boulder. Every angle on the Cybertronian was regal and majestic. The unnamed Cybertronian didn't use any weapons against his opponent. He seemed to be using some telepathic ability as he held up his servos toward the other Cybertronian. His adversary's statue was in a position suggesting he was being thrown backward.
The second statue was carved out of a dark grey boulder and was the polar opposite of the first Cybertronian. The angles on his chassis were so sharp that they might as well have been swords, which was appropriate considering his right servo was a spiked drill and his left servo was just a spike. It didn't take a genius to know that the statues were carved in the likeness of Primus and Unicron. One was the creator of our race and the other was the reason Primus created us, to fight him.
I stood there for several klicks and looked at the two statues, the legendary beings seemly locked in eternal combat. After looking at the statues long enough to analyze every detail, I continued on my walk toward Solus and I assumed the other members of the Thirteen.
It wasn't very long before I came to a clearing in the field of boulders and saw the Thirteen standing on six of seven low stone platforms surrounding an eighth platform. I looked at the ninth platform briefly. It was covered in runes I couldn't understand and was likely the language of the Primes. It was made for a small Cybertronian, judging by its size compared to the Thirteen and myself. I looked up from the platform and right at my carrier, who was the closest to where I was standing.
Solus gestured to the empty stone platform next to her. "Stand over here. We have much to discuss, my son."
Yup, I left you with another cliffhanger... Sorry.
I've been planning on General Shepherd being in this story for awhile now. I thought he was an awesome character in Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2... At least until he killed the player character and then I hated him.
UCAV I mentioned in this chapter is real. I just made it much larger than its real life counter part. The S.T.F 141 is my own version of both NEST and Task Force 141. As you saw in the chapter, they get some pretty cool toys*Puts sunglasses and suit back on* But I'm afraid that anymore information about them is classified... BTW Activision and Infinity Ward own the rights to General Shepherd... *Is paranoid about copyrights*
What I said about sparkmated Cybertronians share dreams in this chapter has always made sense to me. They are the other half of each other and share their memories, wouldn't it make sense if they shared dreams? Like in the detail of Inception except you know that you're dreaming.
This chapter's credit song is "Two Steps From Hell - Otherworld" Again, not a song that really has any lyrics, but it somehow fits the chapter.
Please be sure to leave a review and thanks for reading. I'll see you soon.