Wow, eighteen days since I last posted a chapter... I hate writer's block, and I seem to get writer's block every time I start a new chapter *Sigh* But at least I still post a couple of chapters every month, and my last four chapters have been at least 10k words, which is something I am happy about :)
Thanks go to Crystal Prime for beta reading.
KayleeChiara - I really liked writing the battle sequences, but it was strange to write a battle that was mostly fought in the air. I am glad you enjoyed the battles :) And I was sad to see Wildwing go as well :/ He was so much fun to write. I think my story is decent at best, since I am a humble person. But I am glad you like what I've written so far and hope you like my future chapters as well ^.^
jayna prime - Glad you liked the chapter, and you won't have to worry about a cliff hanger for a while I think :)
Sailor Shinzo - I don't know, why did you get that feeling? If your feeling was along the lines of Starscream being attracted to Shadowstreaker, then you are wrong. I said it right in the summary that there was no mech/mech related content in this story, so I don't know what could have given you that idea. But if your feeling was along the lines of Starscream finding out that Shadowstreaker can -at times- receive visions of the future and trying to capture him, then the answer would be I don't know yet. I do not plan on switching povs very often in this story, and the pov switch will usually be another Autobot other than Shadowstreaker. And the few times I will switch to the pov of a Decepticon will be very infrequent. Thanks for the review.
Devil-O-Angel - Crystal Prime and I talked about the possibility of using your plot-bunny, and we found that we couldn't find a way of making it work in either of our stories, I am sorry :( Don't get me wrong, I honestly really like that plot-bunny, it would be very interesting to see how much Shadowstreaker and Shadebreaker would change the events of the film. But we can't find a way to use it and have it make sense in our stories. Thank you very much for suggesting an idea, and I hope you continue to enjoy Crystal's story as well as mine ^.^
Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro. I only take credit for this story and my OCs.
October 19, 2012 4:04 P.M
Autobot base, outside Jasper, Nevada
More than three jours had passed since Jetfire and Springer had arrived and Wildwing left Earth with his creators.
Optimus and I had told Jetfire and Springer about my origins and who my creators were the same cycle they arrived. They were shocked of course, Springer more so than Jetfire, but they both accepted that what we told them was the truth.
I also told Optimus about my visit with the Thirteen. The Prime was interested to hear about the war between the Thirteen and Liege Maximo, which apparently was an event that had been forgotten over the countless vorns since it occurred. Optimus was truly shocked to hear that he was Prima's descendant, it was something he was not aware of before I told him, and he asked several questions about his ancient ancestor. He was also curious about how Shadebreaker's story was similar to my own, and how her creators sent her into a different reality to protect her in case The Fallen broke out of the reality he was trapped in. He found my entire visit with the Thirteen to be interesting now that I thought about it.
Decepticon activity was almost nonexistent since Wildwing and his creators left Earth, the only time we had encountered them in the past three jours was a small skirmish over an energon stash. The skirmish ended with the Cons blowing up the stash, they never liked to share. I had been training down in the Safe more frequently over the last three jours, it was a great way to pass time and I was always eager to lean new fighting techniques from my fellow Autobots when they occasionally joined me in the Safe for a sparring match. My eagerness to learn different fighting techniques meant that Optimus and I often would spar, which wasn't a problem since Optimus was such a great teacher. But our most recent spar was the reason for my current situation, sitting on a medical berth while Moonracer repaired a gear in my shoulder-joint Optimus had accidently broken as he was teaching me a new take down.
"You do realize this was a very avoidable injury don't you?" Moonracer asked me with an amused tone as she repaired my shoulder-joint. "Your training ended five jours ago, you don't need to train as hard as you have been."
"I know that Moonracer, but I enjoy training, and it's a great way to learn new fighting techniques." I replied, flinching slightly as Moonracer continued fixing my shoulder-joint, it was far from a painless operation.
Moonracer gave a light laugh. "You are almost as bad as Bulkhead and Springer in your eagerness to find new ways to offline your enemies." She said, as she walked over to a small table where she kept the medical tools her servos couldn't transform into. "Why is it that Ratchet and I are the only Autobots who seem to enjoy learning more about science and medicine?" The green and white femme asked, reaching down and picking up a screwdriver-like tool.
I knew Moonracer was likely just musing to herself, but I answered anyway. "I enjoy learning new things in general Moonracer, but I find learning new fighting techniques to be more enjoyable than learning how to be a medic or an engineer." I said with a small shrug as Moonracer walked back over with the screwdriver-like tool and started working on my shoulder-joint again.
Our conversation ended when Ratchet walked through the med-bay doors. Moonracer abruptly stopped repairing my shoulder-joint for several micro-klicks before she resumed her work. It was clear that she had been staring at Ratchet for a few moments before she realized what she was doing and returned to repairing my shoulder-joint.
Moonracer's reaction to Ratchet stepping into the med-bay reinforced my suspicion about how the two medics held feelings toward each other, but were oblivious that the other Bot felt the same way. I was going to have to fix that at some point.
"Hello," Ratchet greeted Moonracer and I, I had a feeling the greeting was meant for Moonracer more than it was meant for me. He walked over to storage cupboard for medical supplies and pulled a med-kit out of the cupboard.
"Bulkhead or Springer?" I asked Ratchet as he started walking out of the med-bay.
Ever since Springer and Jetfire arrived, Bulkhead and Springer had been almost inseparable. They went on ground patrol together, told Miko war stories and spent even more time down in the Safe than I did, and they often injured each other in spars that got a little too competitive. The only thing the two Wreckers didn't do together was hit on Arcee, which was something only Springer did, and the way he hit on her was often very crude. My desire to hit Springer in the faceplate was piqued every time he spoke to Arcee in such a manner. But I was letting my thoughts get a little off track, so I forced myself to stop thinking about how crude Springer was and focused my attention back on Ratchet.
"Both of them," the white and red medic said in an irritated voice, and then he left the med-bay with those words.
There was a short silence after Ratchet left the med-bay before I spoke. "So why haven't you told Ratchet how you feel about him Moonracer?" I asked Moonracer casually.
My question surprised Moonracer so much that she lost her grip on the tool she was using and dropped it on the floor.
The green and white femme reached down and picked the tool up from the floor. "I don't know what you're talking about," she quickly said, trying and failing to sound like she was confused by what I said. But she spoke too quickly for her words to be true, and the fact I heard that her cooling fans had activated gave the impression she knew exactly what I was talking about.
"We both know that isn't true," I stated factually as Moonracer began to work on my shoulder-joint again.
Moonracer worked silently for several micro-klicks before responding. "Was I that obvious?" She questioned, sounding both relieved and dismayed that she had been found out.
I shook my helm slightly. "No, you are very subtle, I am just perceptive." I said. "Now, why haven't you told Ratchet about your feelings?" I repeated my question, looking at Moonracer over the same shoulder-joint she was repairing.
"You should clean out your shoulder-joint, there is some built up grime in here that you haven't cleaned." The femme medic said, completely changing the subject.
"That is because I haven't visited the washracks this cycle," I responded simply. "Now stop avoiding the question."
Moonracer gave a small defeated sigh as she realized I wasn't going to let this go. "I do not want to ruin the friendship we've shared since before the war. I am afraid that if I tell him, he will become uncomfortable with our friendship and avoid me like the cybonic plague." Moonracer explained, sounding legitimately worried that the theoretical scenario she just described would come true.
I looked away from Moonracer as I considered what she said for several micro-klicks. "Ratchet wouldn't avoid you at all if you told him, he would likely want to send more time with you." I finally said, a small smile forming on my faceplate when Moonracer completely stopped repairing my shoulder-joint and walked in front of me with a confused expression on her faceplate.
"And why would you think that?" She asked in a curious and slightly hopeful voice.
"Because I believe that Ratchet feels the same way about you," I kept the small smile on my faceplate as I spoke.
Moonracer didn't say a single word as she stared at me appraisingly, likely trying to determine if I was being truthful. After staring at me for a few micro-klicks, Moonracer walked behind me with a thoughtful look on her faceplate and went back to repairing my shoulder-joint.
I sat in silence while Moonracer worked, not wanting to disturb the green and white femme from her thoughts.
It wasn't until Moonracer finished repairing my shoulder-joint nearly five klicks later that she finally spoke. "You will need to be careful with that shoulder-joint for the next few cycles, the gear I just repaired will break again if you push yourself too much." Moonracer said in a monotone voice, her CPU was obviously focused elsewhere.
I stood up from the medical berth and rolled my shoulder-joint a few times before looking at Moonracer. "I think you should tell him," my words caused Moonracer to look up at me. "I believe you and Ratchet share something special, Moonracer. You can't pass up a chance for happiness because you're afraid of a scenario that isn't going to happen."
Moonracer gave me an acknowledging nod, but didn't respond as she looked down at the med-bay floor, obviously pondering my words.
I turned and left the med-bay, leaving the femme medic alone with her thoughts.
'Well that piece of advice was unbelievably hypocritical of me,' I thought to myself as I walked toward the ops center.
The green and white femme didn't know it, but her reasoning for not telling Ratchet about her feelings were the exact same reasons I wasn't going to tell Arcee about my crush on her. I didn't want to ruin our friendship, especially over a stupid one-sided crush that my spark was stubbornly refusing to let me get over. The advice I just gave Moonracer may have been hypocritical of me, but at least she and Ratchet had a real chance of getting together. I could very easily picture those two being sparkmates at some point, while the chances of Arcee having a crush on me were miniscule at best.
I entered the ops center and saw Optimus in a conversation with Prowl while they both stood in front of the main screen. Looking to the left, I saw Bumblebee playing with Raf on the Xbox.
Jack and Arcee were nowhere to be seen since Jack was working at KO Burger and his shift wouldn't end for another two breems.
I knew Jetfire was out on air patrol so I wasn't surprised not to see him.
I didn't bother looking for Miko, I heard from Bulkhead that she was in detention for the third straight cycle, Miko hadn't really gotten back into the routine of school since they started school again back in August.
I was brought out of my thoughts by the sound of the proximity sensor suddenly going off, causing me to walk over to where Optimus and Prowl stood next to the workstation.
"Is it Agent Fowler, or is it General Shepherd?" I asked the two highest ranking Bots, as Bumblebee walked over from the Xbox area and stood next to me.
Prowl walked up to the workstation and tapped the button that would open the live feed from the security camera up top.
General Shepherd's midnight black Pave low was just landing on the helicopter pad as the main screen began showing the live feed from the camera.
As soon as the Pave low landed, the silhouette I recognized as General Shepherd's stepped off the helicopter and walked toward the human elevator at a slightly faster rate than he usually walked.
"Wonder what Shepherd wants," Raf mused, as he and walked along the catwalk and stood in front of the main screen.
Raf had changed quite a bit in the jours since I became a Cybertronian. He had turned thirteen just a few solar-cycles ago and now stood at five foot two, eight inches taller than he was back in February and exactly what Miko's height had been when I first met her. Raf's hair was unchanged other than how it was a little longer and a slightly darker shade of brown.
"Whatever the reason is, it must be important, he visits even less often than Fowler," I said to Raf, just as the human elevator began to move toward our level.
The elevator reached our level and General Shepherd stepped out before the doors finished opening, a clear sense of urgency was in his measured steps.
Shepherd greeted the only other human at base as he walked toward the catwalk railing. "Raf," he said simply and continued walking toward the railing.
After one of General Shepherd's rare visits to base, the general learned about Jack, Raf and Miko and how they were at our base on a regular basis. To say the general was displeased that civilians knew of the existence of the Cybertronian race would be an understatement. But surprisingly, the main reason he was displeased was not about the breach of security as Agent Fowler had been at the time of Megatron's brief return. Shepherd had not been happy with the lack of involvement the government had in protecting Jack, Raf and Miko. The general wanted to put them into the witness protection program along with their families so the Cons would have a much harder time in locating Jack, Raf and Miko if the Cons took an interest in them due to their ties with us.
Optimus and Shepherd had discussed the security of Miko, Jack and Raf and their families, they agreed on some additional security. There were now members of the S.T.F guarding Jack, Miko and Raf and their families from the shadows, they were never seen of course, but they were there. With the recent additions to security, Arcee, Bulkhead and Bumblebee now had the option of leaving the S.T.F to watch over the kids and return to base if they wished. But this option had yet to be used by Bulkhead, Arcee or Bumblebee.
We also managed to convince General Shepherd to inform Raf, Jack and Miko about the S.T.F 141, so they knew about the existence and purpose of the S.T.F. But Raf, Miko and Jack were sworn to secrecy, they couldn't even confirm they knew General Shepherd to anyone that didn't work in the S.T.F.
General Shepherd reached the catwalk railing and looked up at Optimus. "Optimus Prime," he said respectfully. "The S.T.F has a situation I fear only you and your Autobots will be able to help with." The general's voice was calm, but I caught some anxiety in his voice, it was clear whatever the situation he was referring to was a very serious one.
"We will help you General Shepherd. Now, what is this situation that requires out aid?" Optimus asked, stepping closer to where the general stood next to the catwalk railing.
General Shepherd opened one of his pouches and handed Raf his PDA. "Connect it to the main screen and open the file labeled 'Operation:Jackhammer' if you would." Shepherd instructed the human boy. Shepherd spoke to Optimus again while Raf ran over to the Xbox area to grab his laptop. "Approximately forty eight hours ago, one of our elite field operatives was gathering intelligence in a remote mountain range in Afghanistan when he was captured by Taliban forces."
The general paused as Raf ran back over with his laptop and started linking Shepherd's PDA to his laptop, which he was in turn linking to the main screen.
"Twenty two hours ago." Shepherd continued after his brief pause. "I deployed two squads from Shadow Company to rescue the operative, including the commanding officer of Shadow Company. Their mission was a total success, but they found this in the cave where the operative was being held." General Shepherd looked at Raf as he finished linking Shepherd's PDA to his laptop and the main screen changed its background to the desktop of Shepherd's PDA, albeit with several new files that weren't there the last time Shepherd visited. "Select the file Raf," Shepherd said, he looked at the main screen after he spoke to Raf.
Raf nodded and typed a command into his laptop, and the main screen changed to a satellite photo of a mountain range. The satellite photo was highlighted in several areas by red circles with hand-written notes next to the circles, it was clear this picture was used for briefing the team from Shadow Company before they were sent out to rescue the operative.
"Select the last photo in the file Raf," General Shepherd instructed, not looking away from the main screen.
Raf typed another command into his laptop and the main screen changed again, I was suddenly transfixed by the new image on the screen.
There were several S.T.F 141 soldiers wearing black ski-masks that only showed the upper part of their faces, and what looked like some kind of holographic visor over one of their eyes. Just below the shoulders of each soldier, there was a patch shaped in a circle and rimmed by gold. The image on the patch was what looked like a human skull hanging over a Scottish Claymore that seemed to have wings sprouting out from its handle, the entire image was surrounded by what appeared to be silver thorns. The words, 'Shadow Company' were written in between the gold edge of the patch and the image of the human skull and sword, it was clearly the patch of the elite members of the S.T.F. Each soldier in the photo was carrying a M-320A and was wearing similar clothing to the NEST members in the third Transformers film, black flak jackets over black ACU-type clothes. But the soldiers were not what I was transfixed by, it was the object the soldiers were standing around that grabbed my attention.
The S.T.F soldiers were all looking at a large gold sphere which was half buried in the ground of the cave Shepherd mentioned the operative was being held. The gold sphere was covered in barely perceptible grooves and markings which were clearly of Cybertronian origin. The sight of the gold sphere caused me to start having a vision at the same time Shepherd started to turn and look up at Optimus. But strangely, this vision didn't hurt like the other visions I had in the past.
My vision started with Solus examining and cleaning what I believed were the disassembled parts of the gold sphere spread out on a workbench in front of her while her backplates faced an open doorway. The look on my carrier's faceplate was pure concentration and attention to detail as she carefully looked over each part, and she would clean a part to perfection if she found even the slightest smudge of dirt.
Solus had just picked up a piece of the gold sphere to clean when Megatronus stepped behind her and snaked his servos around her waist, making Solus jump in surprise.
"Ah!" My carrier exclaimed as she turned slightly to look up at Megatronus. "Don't sneak up on me like that!" She said with mock anger, playfully punching Megatronus in the chestplates before turning back to the workbench.
"Oh my sweet, smart and beautiful courted," Megatronus said, resting his helm on Solus' helm as he spoke. "I wasn't even trying to be quiet, you were so focused on working on that Energon Harvester that you didn't even hear me say hello."
I was confused by how Megatronus had referred to Solus as his courted instead of his sparkmate, but then I reasoned that this event must have occurred before they were sparkmates.
Solus stopped working on what I now knew was an Energon Harvester and got a confused look on her faceplate. "You said hello?" She asked as she looked back up at Megatronus.
Megatronus laughed and shook his helm in amusement. "Yes, yes I did, more than once in fact. And you've been working on that Harvester for far too long my courted, I think that you should take a break and get some energon." Megatronus urged with a slightly concerned look in his optics.
My carrier looked like she was going to protest, but she suddenly swayed on her pedes and would have fallen of Megatronus' servos hadn't already been around her waist.
"I think that would be a good idea, the Energon Harvester will still be here after I have a cube," Solus said, trying to regain her balance to no avail, she was suffering from lack of energon.
Megatronus picked Solus up and started carrying her bridle style. "Well then, let's go get you some energon," he said, and gave Solus a smile as he walked towards the open doorway.
The vision ended the moment Megatronus and Solus reached the doorway.
It seemed that no time had passed since my vision began since General Shepherd was still turning toward Optimus when the vision of Solus and Megatronus faded away. I didn't have time to wonder why this was before Shepherd spoke.
"The commanding officer of Shadow Company sent this photograph through a secure channel, and, as you can see, the object my men discovered is of Cybertronian origin." The general said.
"What your men found is an Energon Harvester, it was created by Solus Prime long before the start of the war that devastated our home world." I said, causing everyone's attention to shift towards me.
"Who is Solus Prime? And what is an Energon Harvester?" General Shepherd asked me with genuine curiosity.
Optimus answered the general's questions instead. "Solus Prime is a legendary inventor and scientist among our race and the only femme, you would call her female, member of the Thirteen, the very first of our race that came into existence." He explained, leaving out the fact that I was the direct descendant of Solus. "As Shadowstreaker said, the Energon Harvester is one of Solus' inventions. It is said the Energon Harvester was created to remove energon from any source imaginable, making the Harvester a very useful tool when used to refine energon, but very dangerous if used for any other purpose. I fear the Decepticons will use the Harvester as a weapon against us should they obtain it, for not even the energon that flows through our own veins would be safe from the grasp of the Decepticons." He finished grimly.
I inwardly shook with anger when I heard what Optimus believed what the Decepticons would use the Harvester for. The Cons would turn a tool my carrier had created to make the refining of energon an easier process into what could potentially be used as a weapon of mass destruction. The thought of using the Energon Harvester in such a twisted manner made me sick.
I brought myself out my thoughts as General Shepherd responded to Optimus' words.
"Then the reason for my visit is even more important than it was a few minutes ago," Shepherd said. "Shortly after we received that photograph you see on the main screen, someone, or something, hacked into our network. It made copies of all information related to Operation:Jackhammer and it started attacking the firewalls of our main data base before we cut the hard lines and stopped its progress. We haven't been able to raise any members of the team in Afghanistan since our network was hacked, we believe the Decepticons are responsible for both the hack and disrupting communications with my men of Afghanistan." The general explained with a tone of urgency in his normally calm voice.
"The Decepticons must have intercepted the photo of the Energon Harvester and are moving to recover it." Bumblebee said to me in a grim tone similar to the one Optimus used.
"Unfortunately, I believe you're correct Bee," I replied, giving the scout a brief look before looking back at General Shepherd and Optimus as the Prime spoke again.
"If the Decepticons are involved with the lack of communication from your soldiers as you fear, then we have no time to waste." Optimus said, stepping away from the catwalk and snapping his battle-mask over his faceplate.
General Shepherd correctly took this as his cue to provide us with the coordinates we needed to ground bridge in the same general area of the missing S.T.F soldiers. "Raf," Shepherd addressed the youngest of our human charges. "The coordinates for the mission's planned extraction zone are listed back in the first photo," the general said, referring to the satellite photo of the mountain range.
Raf nodded and brought the first photo up on the main screen again, and sure enough, there were two separate numbers for latitude and longitude among the hand-written notes.
Optimus looked at the screen only a moment before he looked away and started walking toward the deactivated ground bridge. "Prowl, you have ground bridge duty. Bumblebee, Shadowstreaker, you're with me." the Prime ordered.
"Understood Prime," Prowl replied with a curt nod. The stoic SIC briefly looked at the numbers on the main screen before he walked over to the ground bridge controls at the same time Bumblebee and I started walking over to Optimus.
Prowl activated the ground bridge just as Bumblebee and I reached Optimus.
"Autobots, roll out." Optimus said as he transformed into his alt mode and drove toward the green portal.
Bumblebee followed Optimus' example and changed into his alt mode and followed after Optimus.
I folded down into my MRAP form and followed after Bumblebee and Optimus. I figured that a modified F-22 Raptor would attract more unwanted attention from humans that believed I was just a plane being used by a member of the United States Air Force and try to shoot me down. They would of course fail at that task, but a situation that would be better to avoid entirely.
A few micro-klicks after I transformed into my MRAP mode, Optimus and Bumblebee disappeared through the ground bridge and I too entered the ground bridge after another micro-klick.
October 20, 2012 12:56 A.M
Somewhere in Afghanistan
The first thing I noticed after we exited the ground bridge was how dark Afghanistan was. My visibility was less than ten meters before my optics adjusted to the low light and I could look at our surroundings.
We were on what appeared to be a rarely used dirt trail that was right even wide enough for us to drive side by side. There was a thin layer of snow on the ground around us, unsurprising since it was October and Afghanistan had a climate that changed vastly with the seasons. Very few trees were in the immediate area, and the trees that were near us were called Cedrus Deodara, a type of high altitude cedar tree native to Afghanistan that at times reached two hundred feet in height.
The weather was slightly cloudy, it wasn't cloudy enough to be called overcast, but it was enough to block out most of the dim light from the quarter moon I saw behind the clouds.
Optimus was the first one of us to speak after we traveled through the ground bridge. "Stay in vehicle form Autobots, and move downhill." He ordered Bumblebee and I. Optimus started driving down the dirt trail with Bumblebee following right behind him.
Since I was following Bumblebee and he in turn was following Optimus, I was on rear security, so I deployed a turret from the top of my MRAP form and three smaller weapons from my hood.
The weapon I deployed from the top of my MRAP form was my Plasma Chaingun, and the turret it was mounted on gave me the ability to rotate my Plasma Chaingun three hundred and sixty degrees while I was in vehicle form. But I had yet to use this ability outside the combat simulator, so I didn't know how effective I would be with my Chaingun while in vehicle form.
Two of the weapons were miniature versions of a X-12 Scrapmaker, but they both fired at a much higher rate than the full sized version, roughly eighteen hundred rounds a klick for each of them. The other weapon I deployed from my hood was a miniature Plasma Cannon, and like the X-12s the miniature Plasma Cannon fired at a faster rate than the full sized version. Compared to me, the miniature X-12s and Plasma Cannon were so small that I could only use them while I was in vehicle form. But compared to a human, the X-12s were like two tri-barreled .50 caliber machine guns, and the Plasma Cannon was like a Javelin Missile Launcher. Those were deadly weapons for humans, but I didn't know how effective my smaller weapons would be against a Cybertronian.
Optimus, Bumblebee and I were all too preoccupied with looking out for any sign of Decepticon activity to try and start a conversation, so we continued driving down the dirt trail in silence for several klicks.
The trail we were using eventually widened out and the three of us started driving side by side. After we turned around a curve in what was now the dirt road we were traveling on, we spotted a village on a small hill a few miles away, we quickly decided to head for the village. The village was most likely the place where the S.T.F field operative was held before being taken to the cave, and it was the best place for us to start searching for both the Energon Harvester and the S.T.F soldiers.
It was shortly after we saw the village that I noticed just how quiet Afghanistan had been since we arrived. The only sounds I had heard since we went through the ground bridge was the sound of our engines as we drove. There were no sounds of birds calling to each other, there were no howls of Grey Wolves carrying though the night air, and even though we were approaching a town that likely relied on farming, I didn't see a single animal of any kind, not even a dog. The silence of the surrounding area was uncanny, and it gave me the feeling that something very bad had just happened here.
"Something isn't right here," I said warily, breaking the long silence that started after Optimus told us to move downhill.
"What isn't right?" Bumblebee asked.
"I don't know. It's just... Too quiet, I get the feeling that something bad just happened here." I replied, swerving slightly to avoid a large crevice in the dirt road that would have been very uncomfortable to drive through.
"Let us hope that your feeling is wrong Shadowstreaker," Optimus said as we started driving up the hill that led to the village.
The three of us crested the top of the hill a for moments after Optimus spoke and we almost immediately slowed to a stop and changed into our true forms. Unfortunately, we had just found out the reason for Afghanistan's uncanny silence.
The village had been devastated by Cybertronian weapons. The village's buildings were all damaged in some way. Some were only missing part of a wall, or their roof was torn off, while others were completely destroyed.
The dirt road we had been using led through the village, and it was littered with human bodies, or what remained of human bodies to be more accurate.
Many of the bodies covering the road were burned beyond recognition, and what remained of their skin was burned to a crisp and hung from the charred and blackened bones in a grisly manner. Some of the bodies had half-melted AK-47s or RPGs laying on the ground next to them, they had tried to fight back against the Decepticons and they were completely slaughtered.
Other bodies had been incinerated, and all that was left was a pile of ash with an AK-47 or RPG resting in the ash.
There were a few bodies that weren't burned or incinerated. But they were a more gruesome sight as they often were missing limbs, lay crushed at the bottom of a crater where a Con had stepped on them, or simply blown in half. The ground around the bodies these bodies were stained red with blood.
But no other sight affected me as much as the sight of the dead children. Many of their smaller skeletons were in similar states as the adults, burned, crushed and at times completely incinerated and turned to piles of ash. Some of the children's bodies were face down on the ground while the charred skeleton of a dog covered them in what had been a vain attempt to protect the child from being killed, the dogs had been loyal to their care-takers to the end.
"This was pointless, these humans posed no real threat to the Decepticons." I said in a somber voice that was barely above a whisper, as I looked around at the senseless slaughter of the human village. The senseless loss of life saddened me, but also greatly angered me. The only reason the Cons slaughtered this village was for their own pleasure, their sick and twisted version of fun, it enraged me.
"No Shadowstreaker, no they did not." Optimus said in a near emotionless tone. I could tell he was greatly saddened by the sight before the three of us, but he was keeping his emotions in check.
I was about to say something else, but I was interrupted by the sounds of human rifles discharging followed by the more distinctive sound of Cybertronian weapons returning fire carried through the air from no clear direction. General Shepherd's missing soldiers had just encountered the Decepticons.
"General Shepherd's men." Bumblebee said, reaching the same conclusion as me.
The human weapons discharged again, and this time I could tell the gunfire was originating somewhere behind another hill about a mile to the left of us.
"Move out Autobots, General Shepherd's men will need all the help they can get to fight the Decepticons." Optimus said. He transformed into his alt mode and started driving in the direction of the gunfire.
I quickly changed into my MRAP form and followed Optimus as Bumblebee also transformed and followed Optimus.
It was less than a klick before we reached the second hill drove over the top of it and started driving down the opposite side. The sight that greeted us when we started driving down the opposite side of the hill caused me to redeploy the weapons I could use while I was in vehicle form.
Four normal-sized Decepticons that were being led by a particularly large Brute had their backplates turned to us as they surrounded the entrance to a cave at the bottom of the hill. The reason they had their backplates turned to us was simple, the S.T.F soldiers were inside.
There were at least a half dozen muzzle flashes from the human weapons as the missing S.T.F soldiers fired at the Decepticons almost constantly. Every so often, one of the micro missiles that General Shepherd had spoken of at his visit to our base would shot out of the cave and hit a Decepticon. The missile wouldn't do any noticeable damage, but the Decepticon who got hit by the missile would be forced a couple steps backward from the force of the explosion. Unfortunately, many of the missiles the S.T.F soldiers launched were blocked by the unusually large Brute.
The Brute leading the four other Cons towered over the other Brutes I had fought with, I estimated his height to be no less than sixty five feet, well over even Optimus' height.
From what I could tell, each of the Cons the Brute was leading was using a different weapon. One Decepticon was using a Neutron Assault Rifle, another Con was using a Scrapmaker, one was using a Scatter-Blaster and the last one was using a Plasma Cannon.
As my fellow Autobots and I drove down the hill, I started charging up the mini Plasma Cannon on my hood. Within two micro-klicks the mini Plasma Cannon was fully charged and I fired at the Con carrying the Scrapmaker.
The shot hit the Decepticon squarely in the backplates, causing him to nearly loose his balance and stagger forward a step. But the shot caused little damage, my mini Plasma Cannon lacked power of the full sized version.
I fired a burst from my Plasma Chaingun and mini X-12s as the Decepticons started turning around to shift their attention to us instead of the S.T.F soldiers.
My mini X-12s were more effective than my Plasma Cannon, the Decepticon was in noticeable pain when his frame was struck by several dozen of the miniscule rounds of energy. But he was not in pain for long since he was hit multiple times in the chestplates by my Plasma Chaingun the moment he turned around. The bullet-shaped rounds of plasma melted the Decepticon's chestplate armor and made their way straight through the Con's spark, the Con was offlined instantly.
Bumblebee changed into his true form and threw himself at two of the remaining three Decepticons the Brute was leading. He managed to land a quick flurry of punches on one of the Cons that sent his opponent to the ground before he got in a more prolonged fight with the second Decepticon.
Optimus transformed into his true form as well and deployed his swords as he ran towards the Brute. The Prime expertly dodged the Brute's hammer and rammed his shoulder-joint into the Brute's chestplates, knocking the much larger Cybertronian back several steps.
I didn't get a chance to see what happened next in that fight as a charged Plasma Cannon shot hit the ground in front of me, which forced me to change into my true form and run toward the Decepticon that shot at me.
The Decepticon started to charge up his Plasma Cannon again as I ran toward him, but the problem with the Plasma Cannon is its slow rate of fire. Since he just started charging the Plasma Cannon, he wouldn't be able to fire it again for several micro-klicks, far more time than it would take for me to reach him.
I deployed one of my swords when I reached the Con and stabbed him through the chestplates, offlining him in a quick and relatively painless manner, which was something none of these Decepticons deserved. My talk with Optimus after our mission in Antarctica held a lot more meaning for me now.
"I know Bulkhead said that... Does it really get any easier?" I had asked as I looked at Optimus.
"We are Autobots, we only take life when we have no other choice." Optimus had replied, it sounded like he was quoting a recruiter's brochure at the time. The Prime had sighed when I continued looking at him for an answer. "When you have seen the horrors of what the Decepticons do to completely harmless bots..." He had paused for a moment. "You stop feeling guilt when offlining a Decepticon."
I shook my helm to clear my CPU of my past conversation with Optimus. I hadn't known what the horrors Optimus had been speaking of at the time, but now I had seen a glimpse of the horrors the Decepticons had committed. This group of Cons had killed men, women and children for no other reason other than their own pleasure, it made me feel nothing but contempt for the offline Decepticon now resting at my pedes.
I noticed that there were no sounds of battle, Optimus and Bumblebee had finished off their opponents. Looking up from the Decepticon's offline chassis, I saw Optimus was standing in front of the cave and speaking with two humans, but I didn't see Bumblebee anywhere. Deciding that speaking with Optimus was the best way to find out where Bumblebee was, I started walking over to the Prime as he spoke with the two humans. As I got closer, I saw that neither of the humans were wearing the black ski-masks the S.T.F soldiers were wearing in the photo of the Energon Harvester so I could clearly see their faces, and I was slightly surprised when I recognized both of them.
One of the two S.T.F soldiers Optimus was speaking with was slightly taller than the other soldier, I estimated his height to be about six feet four inches. The soldier had a thin beard on his face and his black hair was styled in a short mohawk about three inches tall, an unusual hair style for a soldier. The eyes of the soldier were grey-blue in color and had the hardened look of a seasoned warrior, the scar running over his left eye added on to the look in his eyes. Despite the hardened look in his eyes, I could tell he had a sense of humor when he was off the battle field. Along with the S.T.F patch I had seen the soldiers in the photo wearing, there were black and white British flags stitched on to his combat uniform just below either of the patches. I knew who exactly who he was, his name was John 'Soap' MacTavish. He was the main character of the same video game General Shepherd was the villain in my original reality, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and since he was standing to the right and slightly behind the other soldier, my guess was he was the SIC of Shadow Company.
The other soldier talking with Optimus, the one I believed was the commanding officer of Shadow Company, was the same height as General Shepherd, about six feet three inches tall. This soldier was clean shaven unlike Soap, and his short brown hair wasn't styled in any way. His eyes were the same color as his hair and held an intelligent look within them. Just like with Soap, he had both the S.T.F patch and a flag stitched on his combat uniform, but he had a black and white United States flag stitched just below the patches instead of a British flag. He was even more recognizable than Soap, I was looking at Will Lennox, the field commander of NEST in the Transformers movies and apparently the commanding officer of Shadow Company in this reality.
Optimus turned to me as I approached and looked back at Lennox and MacTavish. "Colonel Lennox, Captain MacTavish, this is our heavy weapons specialist Shadowstreaker." The Prime said, introducing me to the two humans as I walked toward them.
I finished walking over before I responded. "It is a pleasure," I said politely, inclining my helm in a respectful manner. I gave my best to show no indication that I had seen them before, the middle of Afghanistan probably wasn't the best place to tell them of my origins.
"The pleasure is all ours. We wouldn't have lasted very long against those Decepticons." Lennox said gratefully.
"Then it is good that we arrived when we did." I said to Lennox before I turned to Optimus. "Where is Bumblebee? Last I saw he was fighting those two Cons over there." I said, pointing a digit over my shoulder-joint at the two offlined Cons Bee had been fighting.
MacTavish spoke up. "Who? The yellow one?" He asked in his Scottish accent. He continued at my nod. "Ah, well he went with one of our men to recover your... What did you call it Optimus?" MacTavish asked the Prime, clearly referring to the Energon Harvester.
"It is called the Energon Harvester, Captain MacTavish." Optimus replied.
"Yes, your friend went to recover your Energon Harvester. He should be back soon, it isn't that far back in the cave." MacTavish said, turning toward the mouth of the cave as if he expected the yellow and black scout to appear as soon as he spoke.
Surprisingly, Bumblebee did appear from the mouth of the cave with the Energon Harvester is his servos, and he was being followed by more than a dozen human soldiers.
A few of the soldiers had their heads or arms wrapped up in bloody bandages. But one of the soldiers was in such bad shape that four other soldiers were carrying him in a makeshift stretcher, the cuts, bruses and burns on his body were too small and precise for his injuries to be from Decepticon weapons. I concluded that the man on the stretcher was the field operative that Lennox and Shadow Company were sent out to rescue, and the operative had been tortured before he had been rescued. Along the soldiers carrying the stretcher was yet another familiar face.
The familiar soldier was shorter than Lennox or MacTavish, I guessed he was around five feet ten inches tall, but he had a much larger build than either of them. The soldier was bald, but if he had lost his hair earlier in life than most humans or if he was simply shaving his head I did not know. His dark brown skin was the same tone as his eyes, and his eyes held the look of professional soldier and a practical joker. Robert Epps was helping to carry the stretcher, one of my personal favorite human characters from the Transformers movies.
"We got everyone?" Lennox asked as he walked up next to Epps, while Bumblebee walked to Optimus and carefully handed the Prime the Energon Harvester, clearly in awe of the ancient device.
"Yeah, everyone still among the living." Epps said grimly, reaching into a pocket with his free hand and pulling out four dog tags, which he gave to his commanding officer.
Lennox looked down at the dog tags sadly. "Damn it, four K.I.A on a mission that was supposed to be a cake walk." He said with a sigh, obviously blaming himself for the deaths of his soldiers.
"It could have been a lot worse Will." MacTavish said, walking over and standing next to Lennox. "There was very little we could have done against the Decepticons, and you did all you could."
Lennox sighed again. "I know... But that isn't something that is going to matter to the families of four good men." The colonel said, opening a pocket on his flak jacket and putting the dog tags inside. Lennox turned and looked up at Optimus. "Can you help us make contact with our HQ? The Decepticons somehow fried our communications equipment and we need to call for extraction."
"We can provide you with extraction to our base colonel, your General Shepherd is already there." Optimus replied, opening a communications channel to base without another word to the humans. "Optimus to base, we have found both the Energon Harvester and General Shepherd's missing soldiers. We are requesting a ground bridge." The Prime said through the channel, he didn't wait for a response before he closed the channel.
A few micro-klicks after Optimus spoke, a ground bridge opened up about twenty meters in front of us. The Shadow Company soldiers to jumped in surprise at the sudden appearance of the green portal, a few soldiers even aimed their M-320As at the ground bridge like they were expecting an enemy to jump out and attack them. But they lowered their weapons after they realized that no enemies were attacking.
"What the bloody hell is that?" MacTavish asked, not really asking anyone in particular.
I answered his question anyway. "That is a ground bridge captain. It allows us to instantly travel anywhere on Earth." I said, as I walked over and stood next to Soap.
"Well that's useful isn't it?" MacTavish said, looking up at the green portal with a look of awe on his face.
Lennox walked over and stood next to MacTavish. "That it is Soap, that it is." He said to MacTavish before addressing all his men. "Alright, move out! We're getting out of this hell hole!" Lennox yelled, walking towards the ground bridge while gesturing for his men to follow him.
The Shadow Company soldiers started walking toward the ground bridge at the same time Lennox stepped reached the bridge and stepped through it without any hesitation. The rest of the Shadow Company soldiers stepped through the ground bridge a few micro-klicks after Lennox.
"Autobots, return to base. Ratchet and Moonracer will want to examine the Energon Harvester before we use it." Optimus said, looking at the Harvester in his servos while he walked towards the ground bridge.
Bumblebee quickly followed Optimus and both of them soon disappeared into the green portal.
I didn't move to follow my fellow Autobots. Instead, I cast a sad look in the direction I knew the destroyed village was, and then toward the cave where the Shadow Company soldiers found the Energon Harvester, and also where I knew the bodies of four dead soldiers rested.
'Rest in peace victims of the Decepticons,' I thought with a sigh. With one last look in the direction of the village, I stepped forward and entered the ground bridge.
October 20, 2012 12:11 A.M
Autobot base, outside Jasper, Nevada
It had been seven breems since we returned to base with the Shadow Company soldiers.
General Shepherd and his men left our base on the general's Pave Low only about five klicks after we returned since the field operative being carried on the stretcher was starting to go into shock, and we lacked the medical supplies to treat him. But Shepherd had offered his sincere thanks for rescuing his men before he left, and promised to find a way to properly repay us somehow.
Ratchet and Moonracer examined the Energon Harvester and found the Energon Harvester to be in perfect working order. But since we still had a six jour supply of energon in our storage rooms, we had no reason to use the Harvester until we were low on energon, so the Harvester was currently sitting on my shelf next to the picture Wildwing drew for me.
I spent what was left of the cycle down in the Safe after General Shepherd and the Shadow Company soldiers left. I sparred with Bulkhead and Optimus a few times, and I finally learned the take down Optimus had been teaching me earlier in the cycle. I even managed to last for one klick and thirteen micro-klicks against Optimus in a spar. That might not sound like a long time, but since Optimus is a Prime and a far better warrior than anyone else I had seen, one klick and thirteen micro-klicks was actually a sixty percent improvement over my previous best.
Arcee had come down to the Safe after Jack's shift was over. She and I had gotten in some target practice, and also sparred twice with each of us winning one spar. But she had only been down in the safe for a breem before she had to leave and take Jack home.
After my secret crush had left for the Darby household until the next cycle, I trained in the combat simulator and get target practice at the shooting range until I returned to my quarters for a cube of energon and some recharge, which was exactly where I was at the moment.
I took a sip from my cube as I sat at my desk and thought about the cycle's grim events.
No matter how much I trained down in the Safe, I couldn't get the gruesome sight of the dead humans off my CPU. Even though many of the humans were likely involved in the capture of the S.T.F field operative, I could not help but feel sorrow for the humans that were slaughtered.
I also felt sorrow for the Shadow Company soldiers that died while fighting the same Decepticons that slaughtered the village. The only reason they were died was because they found the Energon Harvester in the cave, if they hadn't discovered the Harvester then they would still be alive, and their families wouldn't be grieving for them. The Shadow Company soldiers had been the very best of the human military, the elite operators of the S.T.F, and they had been killed without inflicting a causality among the Decepticons. It made me think of how easily I could be offlined in battle.
A sniper rifle shot to my helm would offline me before my CPU even registered I had been shot, a missile would have a similar affect. A weapon using cosmic rust had a very high chance of offlining me if I was hit in the tank, chestplates or helm. Almost any kind of weapon hitting my spark would offline me as well. The reality was I that could fighting in a simple skirmish and a be offlined by Decepticon who got a lucky shot, and I would permanently join my carrier and sire in the Pocket Universe.
'And you would have never told Arcee how you feel about her,' the thought echoed through my CPU as I took another sip of energon. That thought left me wondering. Should I tell Arcee about how I have crush on her? Was the chance that Arcee had a crush on me really just miniscule? Was there a greater chance of her having a crush on me? Is the chance of finding out Arcee has a crush on me worth ruining our friendship? Would it really ruin our friendship?
I shook my helm to clear my CPU of my thoughts. 'The answers to my own questions are no, yes, no, no and no,' I thought to myself, as I swallowed the rest of my cube in one gulp and set the cube on my desk.
Telling Arcee about my crush on her would be an incredibly stupid move on my part, and it would ruin our friendship, there was no doubt about that in my CPU. Besides, Arcee is a femme with a very intelligent CPU, a very caring and funny personality once you got to know her, could shot a Con between the optics at five thousand meters and had drop dead gorgeous looks to top it off. I knew I didn't have a chance of ever having a chance of being with her, I just needed to convince my spark that so I could finally get over my stupid crush.
I stood up from my desk and walked over to my berth. I laid down on the berth and soon was deep in recharge.
I hated writing the part of the destroyed village, I can picture things very well, so I could clearly see everything I described... It is not a pleasant sight :/
I have been planning on having Lennox, MacTavish and Epps in this story for a while now, I am glad I finally get the chance to have them in it :) And I am sorry if their appearance in this chapter was brief, but I don't think this will be the last time you see them ;)
And I am sorry for the time warp at the end, but my muse refused to like anything I wrote for the ending of the chapter except for a time warp, so I am sorry about that.
This chapter's credit song is "Two Steps From Hell - Lux Aeterna" Surprisingly, this song suits both the part where the Bots are looking at the destroyed village, and the ending. Strange considering one is sad and slightly gruesome, and the other is Shadowstreaker going to sleep... Weird isn't it?
So, please be sure to leave a review and thanks for reading. I'll see you soon.