Well, that took a long time. Sorry for the wait, but this chapter just kept going and going. Again, I am sorry for the wait... I seem to be sorry for the wait a lot... Huh.
So, my last chapter got more reviews than I have ever gotten for a chapter. Thank you all for reviewing, you have no idea how much it cheers me up. :)
Thanks go to Crystal Prime for beta reading.
jayna prime - Yes, yes it did take forever for Shadow' to realize his feelings. Lol. And I am glad you think it was worth the wait for Shadow' to realize his feelings weren't just a simple crush. :) And I didn't do a good job of hurrying up with this chapter, huh? Lol.
KayleeChiara - I thought so. Lol. Yes, yes he does have a clue, but remember, Shadow' is stubborn. Lol. And you'll have to read to find out what I'm going to do with Elita's introduction. :P And you're welcome! I love writing!
TransformersAndJesusFan - Wow, a whole day? On one hand, I am glad you found my story so interesting, and on the other, I am sorry I wasted your day. Lol. Thank you for finding this story interesting and yes, yes Shadowstreaker is stubborn. Haha. And I plan on it. :) Sorry for keeping you hanging for the last month.
Crystal Prime - *Waves hand* You don't need to, you should only review when you want to. :) And I was going for a cool description of that, thanks. :)
Guest - Yes, yes they will. And it took him long enough, didn't it? Lol. And maybe they will... And maybe they won't. *Mysterious music* *Looks around* Where'd that come from? Anyway, thanks for reviewing and I am sorry I had you wait so long.
pfolk - I am glad you understand my reasons for not using your characters. And it is ironic you asked that. You will see... Soon.
falloutaki - I am a humble guy, so I don't think of my story as a masterpiece, but I thank you for thinking for highly of it. And that is one of my favorite songs. :)
Autobot Shadowstalker - Yup, they're here! Lol. And Ironhide is a huge bonus... Literally. Haha.
Sky's Limit5 - As I said in an earlier review. Maybe, and maybe not. :) And the wait is over, sorry for making it a long one.
Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro. I only take credit for this story and my OCs.
November 14, 2012 12:51 A.M
A jungle island in the Indian Ocean
A white sandy beach illuminated by the green glow of the ground bridge was the first thing I was aware of when we exited out of the portal.
I looked up at the sky. Luna was in its new moon phase, so there was obviously no light coming from it, but it seemed as though there were clouds above us since there wasn't any star light either. So, visibility beyond the light of the ground bridge was virtually zero, at least, it would be zero if I was still human. It was moments like this that I loved having built-in night-vision.
A micro-klick to two after Arcee and I exited the ground bridge, the green portal closed and plunged us in complete darkness.
And a few moments after the ground bridge closed, my optics adjusted to the blackness around Arcee and I, and the night became day.
After my optics adjusted to the darkness, I noticed that the clouds above us were actually a thunderstorm, and a nasty-looking one at that. I quickly had my optics adjust again so that they weren't as sensitive to light. While this caused my vision to become quite poor in the very dark setting, it was much better than becoming blinded by the flash of a lightning strike that I knew was likely going to come soon.
"Don't let your optics adjust to the dark." I said to Arcee, making sure to keep my voice down to avoid gaining the attention of unfriendly audio receptors. We may have been alone for the moment, but we were on a stealth mission, it couldn't hurt to watch how loudly I spoke.
"There's a thunderstorm above us, I know." Arcee replied in a similar tone, and started walking towards the shadows of what must have been a tree-line about fifty meters in front of us.
I followed Arcee and quickly caught up with her. "Ironhide and your sisters are in this direction?" I asked.
I saw the femme I was in love with nod in the dim light just as we got to the tree-line. "Yes, they're on the opposite side of the island from us, so the fastest way to get to them is to cut through the jungle." Arcee responded, folding her wing-like appendages against her backplates and ducking under a log resting against a tree.
"So, if we encounter Decepticons we can't sneak past, what's our plan?" I asked, stepping over the log Arcee ducked under and continuing forward.
"Shadow', the thing you need to know about stealth missions is that you never plan ahead. If you find yourself in that situation, you come up with a plan on the fly." Arcee replied as she folded her wing-like appendages again and slipped between a pair of boulders.
"So we're winging it right now," I concluded as I climbed up and over the boulders, since I was too large to slip between them, and set myself down next to Arcee on the other side.
"Cautiously winging it," Arcee corrected humorously as she turned and gave me a smile, causing my spark to skip a few beats.
"And who else, beyond Ironhide and your sisters, should we expect to find onboard the ship?" I asked, ignoring the fluttering of my spark while I stepped over a fallen tree and continued following Arcee.
I saw Arcee give a shrug. "Impossible to say," she replied. "Elita and Chromia were the commander and SIC of a special ops unit made up almost entirely of femmes when Cybertron was evacuated, there's a chance that a few of them are onboard, a small chance, but still a chance." She paused for a moment to move some vines that were in her path before she continued.
"Ironhide's a Wrecker, their third-in-command in fact, so a few of the Wreckers under his command or some Wrecker-trainees might be traveling with him and my sisters. But like I said, it's impossible to know for certain." She concluded with another shrug.
"I see," I said simply, and then started my best to search the surrounding jungle for any signs of Decepticon activity.
Arcee and I continued on in complete silence, only the sounds of our pedes hitting the ground or an occasional rumble of thunder above us broke the calm of the jungle.
And that had me nervous.
Unlike Jasper, this area of Earth was in the middle of its wet season. The jungle should have been alive with the croaking of frogs, the rustling of leaves, and the cries of various animals calling out to each other. But it was totally quiet. It was like every animal in the jungle had crawled into a hole and died, or were hiding from something that spooked them. And I had a bad feeling that something wasn't the thunderstorm above Arcee and I.
"Something's wrong, it's way too quiet." Arcee said, bringing me out of, as well as voicing, my thoughts.
"Agreed," I said, still looking around at the jungle around us. "It's like the jungle's dead, I haven't heard anything else except our pedes hitting the ground and thunder from the storm."
"Not only is the jungle silent, but I haven't seen or heard a single Con ship since we got here, I find that to be very unusual, as well as unsettling." Arcee added in a puzzled tone as she jumped over a wide stream that we found in our direct path.
I took one large step and walked over the stream. "I can understand the lack of Decepticons being unusual considering the size of the ship pursuing your sisters and Ironhide, but why is that unsettling to you?" I asked, giving the femme I had fallen for a curious look.
"Because," she said. "You heard Optimus, an Adversary-class can carry anywhere from two to four thousand Cons onboard, but what he didn't tell Fowler is that a Cybertronian carrier functions in a manner very similar to a human aircraft carrier, only instead of fighters and helicopters, they deploy gunships and troop transports." She paused and looked back at me.
"And a single Adversary-class is supposed to be carrying a few hundred of each, but if there were that many onboard this carrier, than they would be swarming in the sky like angry bees," she said, making me smile slightly at her use of a human idiom before she continued. "So, it's clear to me that this Adversary-class has been modified to carry something other than what normal carriers would."
Her words immediately made sense to me. "So you're unsettled by not knowing what that Adversary-class is carrying instead of gunships and troop transports." I said, more of a statement than a question.
Arcee nodded. "Exactly, whoever the commanding officer of this Adversary-class is, they obviously think whatever they modified the carrier to carry was worth sacrificing the capability of carrying enough gunships to take out a small dreadnought." She replied, giving the sky a nervous glance before she looked back ahead of her.
I was about to ask another question, but I was cut off by a flash of lightning that turned the darkness around us into day for a split micro-klick before we were surrounded by the darkness again. The flash of lightning was quickly followed by a deafening crack of thunder that shook the ground beneath the pedes of Arcee and I.
And that was when the thunderstorm above us opened up, and it started to rain. And I mean rain.
It hadn't even been raining for more than five micro-klicks before water was flowing off my frame like a waterfall, and I found it a little hard to see because of all the rain that was falling onto my faceplate, as well as every other part of my chassis.
I looked over at Arcee and saw that she was in a similar state, with water flowing over every square inch of surface available on her lithe frame.
Arcee comically squirted water out of her mouth turned to me with an amused look in her optics. "Well, at least we won't need to visit the washracks after this mission," she said with a chuckle.
I chuckled as well. "That's only true for you, I'll still need to clean out my bad shoulder-joint after this," I said as we started to walk forward again.
"That's your own fault, I wasn't shot with a Nucleon." Arcee teased as she planted a servo on a rock-ledge that came up above her hips and gracefully leapt onto it.
I rolled my optics and smiled at her teasing as I stepped up onto the rock-ledge. "That wasn't my fault, it was the boulder's." I protested playfully.
"Whatever helps you recharge at night, Shadow'." Arcee replied as she briefly walked backwards and gave me a quick smirk before turning around again.
"Now you're just trying to make fun of me," I said, looking up as the sky flashed with lightning and thunder cracked in the air again.
"Who? Me? I would never do that," Arcee said with a gasp, as if she was hurt by my statement, but it was quite obvious she was joking.
"Uh-huh," I said sarcastically. "Sure you wouldn't."
Arcee likely was going to continue our banter, but anything she might have said was drowned out, because the micro-klick I finished speaking, a gunship that looked like a miniature version of the Nemesis flew over Arcee and I and disappeared behind a cliff we were walking toward.
"It's about time the Cons made an appearance," I said, a serious tone replacing the mirth from our previous banter.
"And it's about time we picked up the pace." Arcee said, and without another word, started to run toward the cliff ahead of us.
I ran after Arcee and caught up after a few moments, but I didn't say anything once I reached her, no words were necessary. The Decepticons had arrived, and that meant we needed to find our fellow Autobots and leave this island as fast as possible.
Arcee and I reached the cliff just a few micro-klicks after the Decepticon gunship flew over us. We both started climbing at the same time, but Arcee quickly left me behind since she was much faster and more agile than I was. And in a very short period of time, she reached the top of the cliff and looked over the ledge, and from what I could make out in the darkness, a shocked look formed on her faceplate.
Once I had joined Arcee at the top of the cliff, who did indeed have a shocked look on her faceplate, I looked over the ledge as well. I instantly saw why Arcee was shocked. Decepticons, were everywhere.
The sky was filled with at least two dozen gunships like the one that flew over Arcee and I, each one armed to the teeth with missile pods and energy cannons.
On the ground itself, there were hundreds of Decepticons spread out across the area in front of us. Most were standing in ranks, but there were some who were shouting out orders and others who were moving massive crates that were no-doubt filled with ammo and weapons.
And just landing on the ground that was, despite the heavy rain, still smoking and burning from an airstrike from starship-grade weapons, or some kind of heavy ordnance carried by infantry, were six troop transports.
The troop transports were reminiscent of the Decepticon transports I had seen in War for Cybertron, with a mixture of aerodynamic curves and the ugly spikes Decepticon engineers seemed so fond of covering their hulls.
The transports finished landing and they opened the doors to their cargo compartments, and anywhere from fifteen to just four Decepticons stepped out of each troop transport and joined their comrades already on the ground.
The majority of the Decepticons that stepped off the transports were average soldiers, but I saw at least three Brutes step out of the transports as well as a few that were a class of Decepticon I had never seen before.
The new class of Deceptions were yellow in color and had a similar build as Heavy Soldiers, but instead of carrying an Ion Displacer, they were carrying around what looked like the Cybertronian version of a flamethrower, complete with a white pilot light that was visible on the barrel of their flamethrowers.
"Pyros, I hate Pyros." I heard Arcee whisper as she stared at the class of Decepticon that I hadn't seen before.
"What makes you hate them?" I asked quietly.
Arcee pointed her middle and index digits at a Pyro. "See those flamethrowers?" She asked in turn, and continued at my nod. "They spit out a stream of fire that burns at around sixty-thousand degrees kelvin. It'll melt through the armor of the average bot in a micro-klick, and your armor would only last a few extra micro-klicks. It's suicide to get up close and personal with Pyros. Period."
"Well," I said. "Remind me to shoot Pyros with my Nucleon from as far away as possible. I don't like being on fire, it tends to hurt." I joked, getting a small laugh out of Arcee while I searched for a way for us to get around all the Decepticons.
The area in front of us was obviously not an option since the Decepticons were using it as a staging ground and there was absolutely no cover.
And the parts of the jungle to the right and left of the Con staging area weren't options either since the Pyros that came off the transports were now using their flamethrowers on the jungle, reducing the trees to ash in nano-klicks and making the ground glow red hot.
So, our only remaining option was to go back the way we came and take the long way around to reach Ironhide and Arcee's sisters.
My thoughts were interrupted as the sound of helicopter blades and jet engines reached my audio receptors, which caused me to look up.
I looked up just in time to see a squadron of Brute Seekers and a pair of huge Cybertronian helicopters fly over Arcee and I, transform in mid-air, and land next to the troop transports.
The true forms of the Brute Seekers were much taller, and much thinner, than their ground-based counterparts. The missile pods that had previously been mounted under their wings were now attached to their shoulder-joints. And their duel chainguns were now on the sides of their servos in manner similar to Springer's chaingun.
But I didn't pay all that much attention to the Brute Seekers. What really grabbed by attention, were the two Decepticon helicopters that arrived with the Brutes.
Each of the helicopters stood at least five times the height of all the other Decepticons around them. The rotors of their helicopter forms had folded themselves on their backplates to prevent any restriction of their servos, but they lacked the sword that Springer had on his backplates. On each of their servos, there were two Nucleons scaled up to their massive size. And each shoulder-joint had a double-barrel energy cannon attached. In essence, the helicopters had enough firepower to level an entire human city within a few klicks.
"Pryos, Brute Seekers, and Annihilators." Arcee said, staring incredulously at the helicopters which were now identified as Annihilators. "We're in deep slag if they start searching the jungle in force. We need to find my sisters and Ironhide and get back to base while the Cons are occupied by setting up their staging area."
"Agreed, but the most direct path to them isn't safe for us to use anymore. And the Pyros are clearing out what's left of the jungle up here," I said, pointing first at the Decepticon staging area and then at where the Pyros were incinerating the trees on either side of the staging area. "So we're going to have to take the long way around the island."
Arcee nodded. "Same conclusion I reached." She said, and let go of the cliff without another word. She landed on the ground below in a crouch and then looked up at me as if to say, 'Your turn.'
I acknowledged her unspoken words with a nod, and let go of the cliff. Following her example, I landed in a crouch as I hit the ground, though my landing made a lot more noise than when she landed, likely because she had been conducting stealth missions for far longer than humanity had been civilized.
"Come on," Arcee said not even a micro-klick after I landed on the ground. "We need to move," she then turned and ran into the jungle in a different direction than we arrived.
I stood from my crouch and ran after Arcee, and caught up with her a few micro-klicks later as she vaulted over a log and jumped over a crevice in the ground that was overflowing with water from the thunderstorm.
After jumping over both the log and the crevice, I fell in step with Arcee and looked over at her.
"How much further are your sisters and Ironhide?" I asked, ducking slightly to avoid hitting my helm on a tree branch.
"A few kilometers beyond the Con staging area," she replied. "So, with luck this detour won't be a long one."
"Hopefully," I agreed, and then fell silent.
Arcee also fell silent and soon the only thing making any noise was the thunderstorm above us.
After we had run through the jungle for a couple of klicks, Arcee suddenly slid to a stop just as we were passing a group of boulders that were clustered closely together. This caused me to run passed her before I slid to a stop as well and looked back at the femme I had fallen for.
She was looking up at the trees around us with a look on concentration on her faceplate, like she was listening for something.
Instead of asking what she was hearing, I remained silent. If Arcee heard anything I needed to know, she would tell me, no point in asking something and breaking her concentration.
A micro-klick later, Arcee's optics flew open and she gave me a serious look.
"Hide!" She somehow yelled and whispered over to me before she moved to the group of boulders and ducked into a gap between them.
I didn't have time to ask her what was going on before I heard what she had, the sound of helicopter rotors. And since the only helicopters on this island were Decepticons, that meant Annihilators were coming towards us.
Following Arcee's advice, I searched for a place to hide as lightning and thunder flashed in the sky and cracked the air.
The trees weren't thick enough for me to effectively hide behind, and even if they were, the Annihilators were far taller than the trees. So it would be pointless to use the trees as a hiding spot when the bots you're hiding from could just look over them.
The sound helicopter rotors cutting the air got louder as I looked over at the cluster of boulders Arcee had ducked into to see if I could hide there as well. But it was clear I wasn't going to be able to use the boulders either. The gap Arcee used to get between the boulders was far too small for me to use. And I didn't see another gap in the boulders besides the one she used.
It sounded like the Annihilators were getting really close as I looked away from the boulders and continued searching for a place to hide.
Lightning illuminated the area around me and, in that brief moment, allowed me to see what appeared to be a sinkhole out of my peripheral vision.
Not wasting a moment, I ran over to where I saw the sink hole and let my optics adjust to the darkness just enough to let me see the sinkhole's basic features.
The sinkhole was small, just barely large enough for a mech my size to fit inside it, and it was acting like a drain for the jungle floor, with so much water flowing into it that it looked like a circular waterfall. And after a brief micro-klick, it become clear to me that the sinkhole wasn't actually a sinkhole, but instead the entrance to an old mine.
My examination of my potential hiding spot was cut short as the rotor blades of the Annihilators got even louder and the wind abruptly picked up.
They were directly above me.
I jumped into the mine entrance without another thought, and immediately lost what light I had at the surface.
A very brief moment of free-falling later, I landed in a few feet of water and I tried to move away from the entrance I had just jumped down. But, my backplates hit a wall of rock before I had even moved out from underneath the water cascading down from the entrance above me.
I started to feel my way around the walls of the mine I had fallen into, but I instantly froze at the sound of at least two Cybertronians transforming out of alt mode, and the slight shake of the ground I felt shortly after hearing the transformations.
The Annihilators had landed.
"This planet is so small," I heard the booming voice of an Annihilator growl in Cybertronian. "Even Triax is bigger than this useless rock," he said, referring to the smallest of Cybertron's seven moons.
"It's not useless," I heard the voice of another Annihilator say. "Didn't you hear Commander Shockwave? This planet is rich in almost every kind of energon. Not only that, Lord Megatron himself is somewhere on this planet with the Nemesis."
"Hmph," The first Annihilator scoffed. "If this planet is so rich in energon, then why is there only water wherever I look?" He asked, though it sounded more like a statement of dismissal than an actual question.
The second Annihilator, who seemed to be the smarter of the two, answered anyway. "Because Lord Megatron wouldn't stay at this planet for as long as he has without a very good reason," he said.
The first Annihilator responded to his fellow Decepticon's reasoning by growling something incoherent and changing the topic. "So where's the Autobot ship we shot down?" He asked. "I wanna shoot something."
"If I knew that, then we wouldn't still be looking for their ship, now would we?" The second Annihilator asked with a slightly dry tone. "Come on, let's search this area already."
The two Annihilators fell silent at those last words from the second Decepticon. And I could both hear and feel the two Annihilators walking around the area above me.
After they walked around for a few klicks, one of the Annihilators stepped right above the mine I was hiding in and, judging by the very faint red light that appeared, looked down the entrance.
"Any Autoscum down there?" The voice of the first Annihilator boomed down the entrance, apparently not able to see me.
But even though it seemed like he couldn't see me, I didn't even think about moving a millimeter as long as the Annihilator was looking down into my hiding place. I was standing at the bottom of the entrance to a mine that for all I knew was filled in now, so I had no room to maneuver. If the Annihilator somehow saw me, I would be as helpless as a fish in a barrel.
I felt the Annihilator's optics looking at me for a few more micro-klicks before I heard, and felt, the massive Decepticon walk away.
'That was way too close for my liking,' I thought as I let out a quiet sigh of relief. 'Now, if only they'd actually leave so Arcee and I can find her sisters and Ironhide.'
Almost immediately after that thought went through my processor, the second Annihilator spoke up.
"I haven't found anything. What about you, Whirlwind?" He asked the other Annihilator now identified as Whirlwind.
"Nothing! Just trees, rocks, mud, and a lot of water!" Whirlwind replied in a disappointed voice that was a borderline pout. "No ship, no Autoscum, not even one fragging native for me to blow up!"
The second Annihilator sighed at the words of his fellow Decepticon. "Then come on," he said. "We have three more sets of coordinates to check for the Autobots before we report to Commander Shockwave."
With those last words, I heard both Annihilators transform back into their alt modes and fly away.
A few micro-klicks after the Annihilators flew away, I heard Arcee's voice carry down to where I was standing.
"Shadow'? You down there?" She asked in a hushed voice that was barely loud enough to reach my audio receptors.
"Yeah, I'm here." I replied, looking up and seeing Arcee's azure optics and the faint outline of her helm at the entrance to the mine.
"Was this the best hiding place you could find?" Arcee teased. "I mean, a mine entrance? Really?"
I rolled my optics at her teasing. "Well, it was either this or standing out in the open, I choose this." I replied, giving her a small smile that she couldn't see.
"Fair enough," the blue and pink femme said before I saw a more professional look come into her optics. "Joking aside, you see anything down there that might be useful?" She asked.
I looked away from Arcee and let my optics adjust to the total darkness of the bottom of the entrance. And a brief moment later, the mine became clear as day.
The area in front of me was a very large mining tunnel that was about one-hundred feet wide and had a ceiling that would have been several feet above my helm if I stood at its apex. And the tunnel itself went on as far as I could see in either direction.
To my embarrassment, I realized that the rock wall my backplates had hit earlier was actually the side of the mining tunnel. If I had moved forward instead of moving backwards, I wouldn't have even been standing under the entrance when the Annihilator looked down here.
I switched my optics back to their earlier setting and looked up at Arcee again. "The mining tunnel is more than large enough for us to use it. And the tunnel goes in the direction we're heading anyway." I said.
"How far does the tunnel go on for?" Arcee asked, azure optics disappearing for as she looked away for a brief moment, likely to make sure there weren't any Decepticons in the area, before she looked back at me.
"I don't know for certain," I replied, shrugging even though Arcee could only see my optics. "But I can't see an end to the tunnel in either direction I look."
Arcee was silent for a brief micro-klick. "Clear out," she said simply.
Understanding what she was about to do, I stepped out from underneath the mine entrance and allowed my optics to adjust to the light again.
A micro-klick later, Arcee landed in a crouch where I stood just a moment ago.
The femme I had fallen for stood from her crouch and looked around the mining tunnel. She apparently let her optics fully adjust to the light before she jumped down the mine entrance, since she looked right at me.
"Nice find, Shadow'. We won't have to worry about Decepticon patrols as much while we're down here," she complimented, then gestured to the tunnel to my left with a nod of her helm. "Let's move."
I nodded and started running down the mining tunnel, with Arcee close behind me.
A comfortable silence quickly descended on the two of us. A silence that was only broken by our pedes splashing the water, or when we occasionally came to a blockage in the tunnel and had to come up with a plan to get through it.
About twenty-five klicks, and several instances where we had to clear out the mining tunnel, later, the mining tunnel opened up into an enormous cavern where the ceiling was more than twice my height, and the walls were no longer visible.
"Humans didn't mine this area," Arcee said, looking down at the floor of the tunnel while we continued to run. "Cybertronian mining equipment dug out this place."
I gave her a curious look. "How can you tell?" I asked.
Arcee and I slowly came to a stop and she pointed a digit at the tunnel floor. "See how the ground's smooth?" She asked.
I crouched and examined the floor where Arcee pointed. I quickly saw that the floor was indeed smooth - smooth to the point that the entire floor was as flat as a granite countertop. Which was appropriate, considering the floor itself was an iridescent granite similar in appearance to the highly-sought Labradorite from Madagascar.
"Yes," I responded after I had examined the floor for a few moments. "Human mining equipment couldn't have cleared this large of an area, at least, not as cleanly as this area has been cleared."
"Exactly," Arcee said. "Only a Cybertronian Mining Laser could've cleared out so much rock so cleanly," she looked up and gestured to the ceiling. "And the ceiling's just as smooth as the floor."
I followed her line of sight and saw that the ceiling was indeed as smooth as the floor. "So, why are the Decepticons clearing out the mining tunnels down here?" I asked, more talking to myself than speaking to Arcee.
She answered anyway. "The Cons are making an underground base," she said matter-of-factly.
I raised an optic ridge and looked over at Arcee. "So, you've seen this before?" I asked.
"Yeah, I've seen underground bases on other planets that were built both by Autobots and Decepticons. And the building process always starts with clearing out massive amounts of earth. It also isn't uncommon for the engineers of Bots or Cons to start where a planet's native race has already created a mine, exhausted the minerals they were searching for, and then left." Arcee answered as she looked around the cavern.
"If they're clearing out a massive area in order to create an underground base, then why aren't there any Decepticon engineers in the area? Or Decepticons in general?" I asked, taking note of the absence of mining equipment and guards.
The answer didn't come from Arcee.
"Dat's 'cause da Cons are still usin' their Minin' Laser 'bout five miles to our left. Although, they are currently experiencin' some... Technical difficulties, with their equipment." A mech's calm voice suddenly said from behind Arcee and I.
I whipped around and deployed my Scatter-Blaster and aimed at the mech that was standing about ten meters away.
The mech didn't flinch at the sight of the Scatter-Blaster I was pointing at him, he just calmly stood there and looked at what I could only guess was an important piece of the Mining Laser before he sub-spaced it. He wasn't a tall mech, at about twenty-three feet tall, he was two feet shorter than Arcee. The mech's primary color was silver, but he also had red and blue accents on most of his frame, although the accents were most noticeable when they were on his servos. A blue visor covered his optics, so I had no idea what color his optics were. But, I had a feeling they were blue, because not only did he faintly resemble Jazz from the first Transformers movie, but he had an Autobot symbol on his chestplates.
I immediately lowered my Scatter-Blaster when I noticed the symbol. "My apologies, there are far too many Decepticons around here to not be on your guard." I said as I returned my servo to its normal function.
The mech I suspected was Jazz shrugged. "Normal reaction when in enemy territory. And Ah'd only have been mad if ya fired," he said with a smile, then looked over at Arcee. "Now here's a faceplate Ah haven' seen in a long time. Nice ta see you again, Arcee."
The blue and pink femme gave a small smile. "Nice to see you too, Jazz," she said. "I see you've already downloaded Earth's languages."
The mech that was now confirmed to be Jazz widened his smile. "O' course Ah did, and what interestin' languages 'dis world has. Ah like their music, too." He said, then turned back to me. "Now, ya goin' ta introduce your tall partner, here? Or are ya just gonna let me guess his name?" He joked.
Arcee's smile turned into an amused grin and she shook her helm. "Jazz, this is my partner, Shadowstreaker. Shadow', this is Jazz." She said, gesturing from Jazz to me and back to Jazz. It wasn't surprising to hear Arcee introduce me as her partner, we were paired up for missions enough that we were pretty much partners already, we just weren't officially partners. At least, until just now, I guess.
"Nice ta meet ya, Shadowster'." Jazz said, putting out a servo for me to shake. It was hard to tell because of the visor, but I was pretty sure Jazz was interested to see Arcee use her usual nickname for me, but he didn't comment on it.
"Shadowster'?" I asked with a with a slight smile and a raised optic ridge as I reached out and shook the smaller mech's servo.
"Well, your full name is a bit too long ta use on da fly," Jazz said, apparently already fond of human idioms. "And Ah can't call ya 'Shadow'', since Arcee over there already claimed it. So, Ah'm calling ya Shadowster' from now on. Ya don' mind, do ya?"
I chuckled. "No, no I don't. Nicknames's don't bother me." I said as I let go of his servo. While it was true that I hadn't been bothered by Arcee referring to me by a nickname, that might have only been because it was Arcee using the nickname. But Jazz didn't need to know that.
Jazz laughed. "Good, 'cause Ah woulda used my nickname for ya either way," he said in a tone that I couldn't tell if he was joking or not, before he turned back to Arcee. "Ah'm guessing 'dat da two o' you are gonna be our ride outta here?" He asked, then continued at Arcee's nod. "Then follow me, Ah know how to get to da ship." Without another word, he turned and ran back the way Arcee and I had just came from.
Arcee and I shared a confused look before we ran after Jazz.
"This is the opposite direction that I feel Ironhide and my sisters," Arcee said as we caught up with Jazz.
"'Dat may be, but the other side o' da cavern doesn' have a tunnel that leads ta where our ship crashed," he paused in his explanation as he slid to a stop a little beyond the border of where the tunnel ended, and the cavern began. "Here we are," he said, more to himself than us, before continuing.
"Now, as far as Ah can tell," he said as for some reason he crouched and looked at the tunnel wall closely. "'Dis place used to be home ta some human military group 'dat didn' wanna be found, 'cause da place is filled with hidden passages." He looked at one spot on the tunnel wall twice. "Ah." He said, no trace of the southern drawl he had been using, and pressed a digit against a seemingly meaningless rock that was a slightly different color than every other rock on the wall.
There was a hiss like an air-tight seal being broken, and a fifty-by-fifty section of the tunnel wall started to move to the side with the sound of poorly-maintained gears, as well as a generator that was on its last leg.
Once the false-wall had moved a few feet, I saw what was on the other side.
The area that was hidden behind the false-wall was a large storage hanger, filled with human machinery that looked to be at least fifty orbital-cycles old. Human tanks also lined either side of the hanger, their once top-of-the-line armor now so worn and rusted that the tanks were more red than their original grey color.
Looking closely at one of the tanks as the three of us stepped into the hanger, I saw the ever-familiar symbol of a hammer and sickle overlapping each other.
"This place is a Soviet relic from the Cold War," I observed as Jazz pressed a button next to the false-wall, causing it to start closing again.
"Cold War? What does bein' cold have ta do with war?" Jazz asked with a raised optic ridge, while Arcee gave me a curious look.
I waited for the false-wall to close with a boom that echoed throughout the hanger before answering. "Being cold has nothing to do with the Cold War," I said as Jazz led us further into the hanger. "The Cold War is what humans call a period of time, equal to about half a vorn, in which there was intense political and military tension between the two most powerful countries on Earth at the time, The United States and the Soviet Union. But the Cold War never led to direct warfare between the two countries, they just made more and more weapons to point at each other."
"What da ya mean they just made more weapons ta point at each other?" Jazz asked as he gave me a curious look.
"At the time, the United States and Soviet Union were the only countries on Earth that knew how to create nuclear weapons. And they hated each other for several reasons, but the most notable is that they both wanted to be the dominate military power on the planet, and they didn't want to share that power with the other. So, to out-do the other, the United States and Soviet Union started an arms race. They used a large percentage of their economies to improve the quality and increase the quantity of their nuclear stockpiles. They kept making more and more nuclear arsenals, as well as creating new technologies, until both sides had tens of thousands of nuclear warheads."
Jazz interrupted there. "Wait a klick, they kept makin' nukes until they both had enough ta turn Earth ta ash ten times over?" He asked, and scoffed at my nod. "Dat's just stupid. Anyway, continue, Shadowster'."
"It was stupid," I agreed. "Anyway, they pretty much just kept building nuclear weapons and developing new technologies until the Soviet Union finally collapsed because the strain on its economy was too much to continue." I concluded.
Arcee looked at me with a confused look on her face. "So, the Cold War was a war that didn't lead to war?" She asked, and shook her helm at my nod. "I wish our war was like that." She said with a tone of sadness that I only heard because of how well I knew her.
"Yeah, me too, Arcee." I said to her quietly as I put a servo on her shoulder-joint and gave her a reassuring look, which she acknowledged with a grateful look and a nod before I let my servo fall back to my side.
Even though Jazz wasn't even looking at Arcee and I, I had a strange feeling that he was smiling like he just confirmed a suspicion. Although, I didn't know why I got that feeling, or why Jazz would be suspicious of anything, so I shrugged off the strange feeling as Jazz continued leading us into the hanger.
The three of us soon came to the end of the hanger, but Jazz turned left and pressed another button similar to one he pressed to have the false-wall move back into place. And another fifty-by-fifty foot section of the wall moved to the side to reveal another hanger that continued on in the direction Arcee felt her sisters and Ironhide.
"How'd you even find these hidden passages?" I asked as we stepped into the second hanger and waited for Jazz to find the button to close the false-wall.
"Ah'm a Spec Ops Saboteur, it's my job ta find things dat are meant ta stay hidden." Jazz replied as he found and hit the button that caused the wall to start moving back into place.
"How many more do we have to go through to get to the others?" Arcee asked.
"It kinda zig-zags before we get ta da ship. So, we have 'bout six more passages and four miles ta go through before we get ta da ship." Jazz answered, and then gestured for us to follow him. "So, come on, younglin's! We got some walkin' ta do!" He said with a smile, and then started walking down the second hanger.
I sighed as Arcee and I started following Jazz again, all this walking was starting to annoy me.
About fifteen klicks of walking through different parts of the old Soviet base, which I admit was interesting, we rounded a corner and finally arrived where the Autobot ship crashed.
The area the ship crashed was yet another hanger. Although, it was probably five times larger than any of the other hangers we walked through to get here.
Off to our right, there was makeshift metal barricade in front of a giant hole in the wall. Giving it a closer look, I saw that the hole was man-made for the purpose of allowing human jets to fly in and out of an unusually large sea cave, judging by the rumble of thunder and the sound of waves hitting rocks I heard coming from the man-made hole.
To our left, was the Autobot ship. Well, what was left of the Autobot ship.
The vessel was a little less than half the length of the Decepticon stealth frigate I saw a few jours ago. But instead of having the spikes and sharp angles of the usual Decepticon ship, the Autobot ship was clearly designed to look aesthetically pleasing to the optic, with smooth angles that gave it an almost organic appearance. Like the ship itself was a living thing.
Unfortunately, the elegant ship was torn almost in half, with both of its two decks visible through multiple breaches in its hull.
I looked down and saw that the ship had also gouged a path through the floor when it had crashed into the hanger, more than likely wrecking even more parts of the ship. But, I was confused by how the ship even got in the hanger since there wasn't a hole in the top of the hanger that the ship most certainly would have created if it had crashed through the ceiling.
With a start, I realized that the ship must have gotten into the hanger by flying through the sea cave before it came to rest where it did now.
'An intergalactic hole-in-one... Huh,' I thought as I saw three mechs suddenly step around the metal barricade.
The two tallest of the three mechs were about three feet taller than Ratchet and were identical in every way except what color their paint was, with one being red and the other being yellow.
The third mech was as tall as Ratchet and was white and blue in color. He also had a... Younger looking faceplate, like he was fresh out of training. Or, like I remember my brothers referring to new members of their unit, he was green. Which was probably similar to how I looked back in May.
Although, I knew for a fact that I wasn't as giddy back then as this mech was now. He was practically bouncing on his pedes in excitement, a clear sign he was eager to fight, never an attitude you wanted on the battlefield.
"Oh, slag... Not these two..." I heard Arcee mumble under her breath as the three mechs approached us.
I wasn't curious why Arcee said that, I remembered her describing the rude behavior of a set of twins when Wheeljack's imposter was at our base. And since I heard Arcee say something under her breath when Springer arrived that was similar to what she just mumbled, that meant that the twin mechs were likely Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. Fantastic.
The red mech I believed was either Sunstreaker or Sideswipe wolf-whistled when he saw Arcee, which caused my left optic to twitch, which in turn was noticed by Jazz. Frag.
"Well, look at this," the red mech said. "After several thousand centi-vorns, we're finally reunited with Arcee. I hope you didn't miss us too much, beautiful." He finished with a sly smile, although thankfully his smile didn't carry an air of sleazyness like Springer's did.
"I missed you and Sunstreaker like cosmic rust," Arcee said with a tone that was more annoyed than hostile, unlike when she first spoke to Springer in the Sahara.
The red mech that must have been Sideswipe feigned being shot in the chestplates. "That hurts, Arcee. That hurt me right here." He tapped his servo on the portion of his chestplates that was above his spark, then looked over at his yellow twin that could have only been Sunstreaker. "Didn't her words hurt you too, Sunny?"
Sunstreaker gave his twin a glare. "Don't call me that!" He yelled.
Sideswipe smiled at the angry look his twin was giving him. "Why not? You call me 'Sides' all the time, so why can't I call you 'Sunny', Sunny?"
"Stop calling me that! And we've been over this, it's because I'm the older brother. And older brothers get to call their younger brothers whatever the frag they want." Sunstreaker replied, voice now more annoyed than angry, but the glare remained plastered on his faceplate.
"You're only like two klicks older than me!" Sideswipe protested. "And that has nothing to do with why you say I can't call you nicknames!"
"It has everything to do with it," Sunstreaker said. "Younger brothers are supposed to obey their older brothers."
"That isn't what carrier always told us when we were growing up," Sideswipe said.
"Nope," Sunstreaker responded. "It's what I'm telling you now."
I looked over at Arcee as the conversation between the twins became less of a conversation, and more of a pointless squabble between siblings. "Are they always like this?" I asked.
"You have no idea," Arcee replied quietly.
The white and blue mech that hadn't spoken yet looked between Sunstreaker and Sideswipe for a few micro-klicks before he slowly crept towards Arcee, Jazz, and I and turned his attention to Arcee.
"So, you're really the famous Arcee?" He asked in an excited tone, like he was a human boy meeting a player from his favorite baseball team. Strangely enough, the unnamed mech sounded exactly like Nolan North, the voice actor who played... Well, pretty much a character in every major video game... Ever.
Arcee raised an optic ridge at the unnamed mech's tone and looked over at Jazz. "Who's this?" She asked. "I've never met him before."
"My name's Smokescreen, member of the Cybertron Elite Guard!" The mech now known as Smokescreen answered cheerfully. "So, it is really true that you ripped off an Insecticon's helm with your bare servos?" He asked. "Or that you once stormed a Decepticon base by yourself? Or how you punched a Heavy Soldier until he went offline? Or that you once broke out of Kaon Prison by breaking down your cell door and stealing a troop transport?" His voice steadily got more and more excited as the things he said started to become ridiculous. "Or that you once offlined a Destroyer with nothing but a single Stun Grenade?! Or, or that you offlined two Brutes with one bullet?! Or, or, or that you once destroyed a Decepticon war cruiser with a heavily damaged gunship?!" He finally concluded, voice so excited that his tone suited a youngling better than a full-grown mech. And he somehow looked out of breath, which was impressive considering how Cybertronians didn't require air.
Silence descended on the six of us after Smokescreen finished speaking.
Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, who had stopped their bickering to listen to Smokescreen's lengthy barrage of questions, stared at the white and blue mech incredulously, clearly shocked that he managed to ask so many questions in such a short amount of time.
Jazz was smiling, like the saboteur knew Smokescreen was going to do something like this, and found it absolutely hilarious.
Arcee was giving the white and blue mech in front of her a blank look, she was obviously surprised by how Smokescreen asked her so many questions, and how his behavior was like that of... Well, a human fanboy.
After the silence carried on for several micro-klicks, I turned and gave Arcee a dry look. "I believe you have a fan, Arcee." I said with a tone that was even dryer than the look I was giving her.
Sideswipe looked over at me. "Who are you?" He asked, as if he just now noticed my presence, which wasn't surprising since he had been either staring at Arcee, arguing with his twin, or looking at Smokescreen incredulously.
"Did you seriously not notice him standing there, Sides?" Sunstreaker asked as he looked over at Sideswipe in amazement, likely surprised by his twin's lack of observation skills.
Sideswipe looked at Sunstreaker and stared at him for a moment. "Yes," he admitted shamelessly.
"You're such a dumbaft..." Sunstreaker said with a shake of his helm.
Sideswipe opened his mouth to shout a retort, but Jazz moved forward and got between the two brothers. "Whoa, now." The saboteur said. "Da two of ya have done enough fightin' for one night, wouldn' ya say?"
"We can't fight enough." Came the immediate, synchronized response from the twins as they both looked down at Jazz.
Jazz ignored the words of Sunstreaker and Sideswipe. "Now dat Ah've successfully kept ya from fightin' again," he said, then gestured to me. "Twins, Smokescreen, 'dis here is Shadowstreaker, he's Arcee's partner and da the heavy weapons specialist for the Autobots on Earth." He introduced me to the other three mechs.
I was surprised when he told them my role on Earth, I hadn't even told him that when Arcee introduced us, so his observation skills must have been very, very good. I was going to be careful around Jazz from now on, if he could tell I was the heavy weapons specialist just by looking at me, then he could easily become the third bot to find out how I felt about Arcee, if I wasn't careful that is.
Smokescreen looked over at me after Jazz spoke. "I, uh... I've never heard of you," he said as he scratched the top of his helm, then looked at the silver mark on either side of my helm. "But, that symbol kinda looks like some of the ones I've seen in the book Alpha Trion was always writing in... Is there some kinda story behind how you got it?" He asked in a genuinely curious tone.
I ignored the second part of his statement for a moment as I focused on what Smokescreen said about Alpha Trion. "You worked with Alpha Trion?" I asked.
Smokescreen nodded. "Yeah, I was in charge of keeping Alpha Trion safe during the final cycles of the war. It was really boring to play bodyguard instead of fighting the Decepticons!" He slammed his servos together before letting them fall to his sides. "But, the old mech turned out to be a really good teacher, and he always seemed to have another story to tell." He finished explaining, then looked back at the silver mark on my helm. "So... Isthere a story behind that mark?" He asked, repeating his previous question.
Since my question had been answered, I answered his, albeit with a cryptic tone. "You have no idea."
After I didn't elaborate, Smokescreen opened his mouth to speak, but the words died on his lips when we all noticed four more Autobots approaching from the ship.
Of the four other Autobots, three of them were femmes. And two of them looked similar to Arcee.
They both lacked Arcee's wing-like appendages, and one was slightly taller than Arcee and was rose red in color white accents. While the other was slightly shorter than the femme I was in love with, and also was a lighter shade of blue and had purple accents.
The third femme was mostly orange in color, with red accents and an Autobot symbol on her chestplates. And at just twenty feet tall, the third femme was barely any taller than Cyberfrost. She also seemed to be in the same age group as Bumblebee, a youngling forced to become a soldier to stand against the Decepticons. But I would have to ask Bumblebee to be certain.
The only mech of the group of four was mostly red in color, with black accents on his shoulder-joints and faceplate, which had several lines on scaring on it. And he was simply massive. He was three feet taller than I was, or fifteen feet taller than Prowl and Jetfire and just three feet shorter than Optimus, and he was almost as almost as wide as he was tall. But unlike Bulkhead, who looked... Well, fat, this mech looked much more fit, more like a Cybertronian athlete and less like a sumo wrestler. His right servo had a cannon attached that faintly resembled a Fusion Cannon with a larger barrel, and his left servo had what to me looked like a Thermo Missile Launcher on steriods. In all, he was a very intimidating mech.
It was obvious to me that the first two femmes were Chromia and Elita-One, and the mountain of a mech behind them was Ironhide. But, I didn't know who the femme walking next to them was. I guess I was going to find out soon.
I looked over at Arcee, and saw that the femme that normally had her emotions in check was smiling at her sisters and had a single tear of joy running down her faceplate.
Arcee started to walk out to meet her sisters and Ironhide at the half-way point between us and the ship. But she hadn't even taken three steps before she broke out into a run, letting out an uncharacteristic squeal of happiness as she quickly reached the sisters she hadn't seen in centi-vorns and crushed them in a hug.
Ironhide leaned down and wrapped his own servos around the reunited sisters in his own hug as Arcee ran into Elita and Chromia.
I smiled at the sight of Arcee being reunited with her sisters, while the third femme paused for a moment before she continued walking toward the rest of us. Even though Arcee didn't talk about them much, I knew how much it hurt Arcee to be separated from them, it was nice to see her finally being reunited with them.
'And be comforted by them at a level you will only be able to dream about,' a voice in the back of my processor said, but I ignored it. I already knew my love for Arcee wasn't going to be returned, and I didn't need my own CPU reminding me of that fact.
I continued watching the three reunited sisters and Ironhide for several micro-klicks, without letting my smile fall from my faceplate. At least, until Sunstreaker and Sideswipe opened their mouths.
"Did you hear Arcee's squeal? She sounded like a femmling that's still in the academy!" Sideswipe said, laughing quietly as he made fun of the way Arcee expressed her happiness at being reunited with her sisters.
"Yeah," Sunstreaker agreed with a chuckle. "A femmling-like squeal just doesn't suit a hot femme of her caliber-"
That was as far as Sunstreaker got, because both of my servos became flashes of black and I Gibbs slapped the back of Sunstreaker and Sideswipe's helms before they could continue.
"Hey! Watch the paint!" Sunstreaker hissed, turning to send a fierce glare up at me as he and Sideswipe rubbed the back of their helms.
I returned Sunstreaker's glare with a calm, icy stare, which eventually caused him to back down. "Don't make fun of the way Arcee expressed her joy at seeing her sisters for the first time since the end of the war," I said, shifting my gaze between the two brothers. "How would you two feel if you were separated for thousands of centi-vorns?"
Sunstreaker and Sideswipe looked at each other, then looked at me. "We sure as slag wouldn't squeal like femmlings!" They replied simultaneously, then high-fived each other for their joke.
Seeing that the twins weren't going to see how they were wrong, I sighed and shook my helm and walked back over to where I had been standing, also catching a knowing look from Jazz as I walked by him.
'Well, so much for being careful around Jazz,' I thought as Arcee, her sisters, and Ironhide broke from their hug and started walking over to join the rest of us.
"We would have come out to join you all earlier," I heard the light blue femme say to Arcee once they were in hearing distance, then she turned and give Ironhide a light glare. "But someone just had to sub-space every single one of the cannons in the armory."
The massive red and black mech chuckled. "Well, I had ta save all my spare Riot Cannons, this is the fourth I've used in as many orbital-cycles." He said, gesturing to the Fusion Cannon-like weapon on his right servo. "And I couldn't leave all the Thermo Missile Cannons there, I may need ta replace old faithful here, soon." He finished, giving the cannon on his left servo a fond look.
I saw Arcee roll her optics. "I see that all these centi-vorns haven't changed you very much, Ironhide." She said as she turned and smiled up at Ironhide.
The red and white femme gave Arcee a dry look. "You have no idea, Little 'Cee." She said, then laughed lightly at the sour look Arcee gave her for the nickname.
"Why do you keep calling me that, Elita?" Arcee asked as she narrowed her optics at the femme who I now knew was Elita-One. "I outgrew that nickname back when I was a youngling. And I've been a grown femme for centi-vorns, I think it's time for you to stop using it." She said with a displeased tone, clearly more irritated at being called that nickname than angry at her sister.
"What about 'C.C'? Have you outgrown that nickname, too?" The light blue femme who could only be Chromia teased.
Arcee sighed and shook her helm. "I don't even know why I missed the two of you," she said in an exasperated tone, causing her sisters and Ironhide to let out a short laugh before the group of four Autobots finally joined us.
"Flareup, Elita, Chromia, Ironhide. This is my partner, Shadowstreaker." Arcee said after a moment, gesturing to the femme who I didn't know until just now, then to her sisters and Ironhide, and finally to me. "As Jazz already said, he's also our heavy weapons specialist."
The orange and red femme who Arcee called Flareup gave me a small wave. "Hi," she said quietly, which gave me the impression that not only was she young like Bumblebee, but she was also a shy femme.
Elita inclined her helm in a way that was similar to how I usually inclined my helm. "A pleasure," she said in a formal voice that wasn't very different from Optimus' usual tone.
After Flareup and Elita said their greetings, Ironhide gave me an appraising look. "The Autobot heavy weapons specialist, huh?" He gave the Riot Cannon on his servo a brief glance before looking back at me. "We'll see about that," he said with a small smirk, leading me to believe he was going to test me at some point to see if I was fit for my role among the Autobots.
Unlike the previous three Autobots, Chromia didn't give me a greeting, she just looked at me, then to Arcee, then back to me.
"Hmm..." I heard her hum to herself with a seemingly disinterested look on her faceplate, but the look in her optics was far from disinterested. For a moment, I thought she had somehow figured out I had feelings for Arcee. But I quickly dismissed that thought as Chromia opened her mouth to speak, but froze at the hard look Arcee was giving her for some reason, as if daring her to say something. And after Arcee stared at her sister for a few moments, Chromia nodded at some unspoken request and remained silent.
I gave Chromia and Arcee a confused look before I mentally shrugged and inclined my helm like Elita had done a moment ago. "Nice to meet you all," I said honestly as I looked between the four Autobots, gaze lingering on Arcee and Chromia a micro-klick longer than the others.
"Now that we got that pointless slag out of the way," Sunstreaker said in an angry tone, not even a micro-klick after I spoke. "Can we go, now? I'm tired of this place."
Rolling my optics at Sunstreaker's words, I raised a servo to my audio receptor and opened a channel to base. "Shadowstreaker to base, requesting ground bridge." I said through the channel, and then closed it without waiting for a response.
A couple micro-klicks after I contacted base, a ground bridge opened up about twenty meters from where we all stood, causing me to have my optics readjust to the source of light.
Sunstreaker and Sideswipe walked over to the green portal first, and they quickly disappeared into the ground bridge. The twins were soon followed by Smokescreen, then Jazz, Elita, Chromia, Ironhide, and then finally Arcee.
I was about to step through the ground bridge as well, but I stopped when I saw something on the floor that caught my optic.
After I looked at what was on the floor for a few micro-klicks, I saw that the object was a human-sized wrench that had somehow escaped the rusty fate of the rest of the base.
I reached down and picked up the small wrench. "Huh... I wonder how this thing didn't corrode?" I asked myself, then shrugged after a moment, it had been a while since I got a souvenir from a mission, and this was would make a good memento.
Smiling slightly, I stood up and sub-spaced the wrench as I started walking toward the ground bridge again. And a moment later, I entered the green portal.
November 13, 2012 5:47 P.M
Autobot base, outside Jasper, Nevada
The first thing I saw after exiting the ground bridge was Jazz talking to Jack, Raf, and Miko over by the Xbox area. And judging by how Miko was making motions like she was playing her guitar, the main topic of their conversation was music.
Looking right, toward the entrance tunnel, I saw Sunstreaker and Sideswipe speaking with Prowl, who looked less than pleased by their presence, and from what I had seen of their personalities, I couldn't blame him.
I looked to the left and saw Ironhide, Jetfire, and Chromia speaking with Bulkhead, with the four Autobots occasionally sharing a laugh as they talked.
Looking over near the workstation, I saw Arcee talking with Optimus, Elita, and Ratchet, who had his servos around Moonracer's tank, and with Bumblebee and Flareup a short distance from them.
When I focused on the two younger Autobots, I noticed something very interesting. Bumblebee and Flareup were standing in silence, and I saw that Bumblebee's door-wings were fidgeting constantly, like he was nervous about something. And Flare Up was looking at the yellow and black scout with a well-hidden look of affection.
'Well, would you look at that. Bumblebee has a crush on a femme, and that same femme has a crush on him.' I thought with amusement, including Ratchet and Moonracer before they got together, that made three pairs of femmes and mechs that liked each other and had no idea the mech or femme they liked felt the same way. I might have to fix that.
My observations were interrupted by Smokescreen appearing from seemingly nowhere and literally bouncing on his pedes in excitement. What had him so excited, I didn't know, but the sight of a grown mech bouncing in excitement like a youngling was disturbing enough to where it didn't matter.
After a couple more bounces, Smokescreen revealed what had him so excited. "Bulkhead The Wrecking Ball is right over there!" He said so quickly that I almost didn't catch his words, pointing a digit at Bulkhead. "And Prowl The Strategist is over there! And, and Ratchet The Hatchet is standing with his servos around the tank of Moonracer The Sharpshooter!" He pointed at each bot as he said what was apparently a nickname for them, before he finally pointed to Optimus. "And, and, and Optimus Prime is right over there!" The white and blue mech damn-near squeaked as he pointed over at Optimus stood. "The Optimus Prime... Is standing... RIGHT... THERE!"
I stared at Smokescreen in an incredulous silence. From what he has said to Arcee, I had assumed he was basically a huge fanboy of Arcee, but I now saw that I was wrong. Smokescreen, was everyone's fanboy.
After I continued staring at Smokescreen, who hadn't moved at all since he finished speaking, I slowly looked over at Optimus, and then back at the white and blue mech in front of me. "He's Optimus Prime? I would have never guessed," I said sarcastically.
My sarcasm flew right over Smokescreen's helm, and he walked away to join the twins in their conversation with Prowl without another word to me.
I watched Smokescreen for another micro-klick before I turned my attention to Bumblebee and Flareup again, who now seemed to starting a conversation, and it looked like they would descend into an awkward silence after one of them finished speaking. It was painful to watch.
Seeing that there wasn't anything interesting going on with those two beyond their attempts at coversation, I shifted my gaze to Optimus and Elita, who were stealing glances at each other when they thought no one was watching.
I gave a small smile at the sight, things were going to get interesting around here.
My smile instantly vanished when I saw Jazz looking at me out of my peripheral vision.
When I looked fully at Jazz, he moved his helm just enough so that his visor was turned toward Arcee, and then he looked back at me and gave me a knowing smile.
Things were certainly going to get interesting around here.
(Human calendar) November 14, 2012 3:57 A.M
(Cybertronian date) 1103432 (Centi-vorns since the end of the Golden Age)
Decepticon War Cruiser Nemesis, low Earth orbit three-hundred and fifty miles northeast of Madagascar
Megatron stood in the Nemesis' airlock, waiting for his ship to finish docking with Shockwave's vessel, the Dark Matter, with the ever-loyal Soundwave standing to his left.
Normally, Megatron would have Starscream standing next to him, even though the seeker was still recovering from the beating Megatron had given him over the last mega-cycle or so. But Soundwave had informed him of Starscream's failed attempt to revive the late Skyquake with Megatron's original shard of Dark Energon, and how the seeker lost one of his servos when the Autobots investigated the Dark Energon signal.
Starscream's attempt to use Dark Energon behind Megatron's backplates would usually have spelled the seeker's doom. But, Megatron found Starscream's consistent failures to be... Amusing, so he would allow Starscream to remain online and continue to have his schemes fail.
'Release me...' The Voice whispered to Megatron, causing a chill to go down the Decepticon leader's spine and halt his thoughts and focus on getting The Voice to shut up.
'Get out of my helm,' Megatron thought back to The Voice.
'Yeah! Get out of Megatron's helm!' A new voice said inside of helm of the Decepticon leader. This second voice was much higher and sounded far-less sinister than the first, more like an insane scientist yelling at someone to get of their lab than an apocalyptic entity, and that greatly confused Megatron, something that rarely happened to the former gladiator.
'What is this? Get out of my helm! I am Megatron! There is only one voice permitted in my helm! MY OWN!' Megatron thought back at both voices.
The warmonger waited for the voices to speak again, but they did not, so Megatron went back to waiting for the Nemesis to dock with the Dark Matter.
Megatron did not have to wait long, as almost immediately after he yelled at the voices in his helm, the Nemesis shook as it finally docked with the Dark Matter, and the airlock door slowly opened to reveal two Insecticons on the other side.
"Hail, Lord Megatron!" They said in unison, bringing a fist against their chestplates and bowing slightly as they did so.
Megatron didn't even give the two Insecticons a passing glance as he and Soundwave walked through the airlock door. "The pleasure is all yours," he said as he walked into the hallway beyond the Insecticons and turned left.
Megatron and Soundwave passed more than a dozen Decepticons as they walked down the hallway, and almost all of them called out to Megatron as he passed by, but the warmonger ignored them, he was here to speak with Shockwave and no one else.
Several klicks after Megatron and Soundwave entered the Dark Matter, they arrived at Megatron's intended destination, the ship's enormous hanger.
And Megatron smiled at what he saw.
Troop transports were coming and going, some carrying supplies for the soldiers on the island far below them, and others were carrying miners to work on the underground base Shockwave informed Megatron he had begun construction on.
Up on the ceiling of the hanger, dozens of gunships were entering the Dark Matter to refuel, but just as many were released from their docking clamps and flew out of the hanger to resume their patrol duties.
On the hanger floor, hundreds of Annihilators, Pyros, Brutes and their seeker counterparts, Insecticons, and normal Decepticon soldiers were walking to and from different areas of the hanger, each likely on their way to organize supplies for the journey down to Earth's surface.
But the smile on Megatron's faceplate didn't remain there for long, because as he looked around the hanger, he noticed there were perhaps only a third of the amount of gunships and troop transports then there should have been for an eight kilometer vessel such as the Dark Matter. And it was the same story with the number of soldiers Megatron saw in the hanger.
After Megatron looked around the hanger for a moment, he saw another problem. The far wall of the hanger was closer than it should have been, and it seemed to have been built recently.
'What has Shockwave done to a perfectly good Adversary-class?' Megatron thought. 'He's turned this ship into a lightly-armed transport instead of a warship. And knowing him, that is his laboratory.'
Shaking his helm at the foolishness of his head scientist, Megatron headed for the far wall of the hanger, with Soundwave wordlessly following behind him.
After a short walk, in which countless Decepticons shouted a 'Hail Megatron!' to him, Megatron and Soundwave reached a door on the far side of the hanger.
When the door didn't open automatically, Megatron pounded the button on the side of the door to open it, but it remained closed.
Megatron wasn't surprised to find the door was locked, Shockwave liked to work in seclusion, but the warmonger was angry that he had ordered Shockwave to meet with him and the scientist had either forgotten, or was simply ignoring him. Both possibilities were not acceptable.
Looking up above the door, Megatron saw a small camera. "Shockwave!" He barked at the camera's lens. "Open this door and I won't tear you apart!"
A few micro-klicks after Megatron yelled at the camera, the door remained closed.
Snarling in frustration, Megatron took a few steps back, turned around and fired his Fusion Cannon at the door.
The shot from Megatron's cannon hit the center of the door and obscured it from sight with smoke, fire, and a deafening explosion, causing every Decepticon in the hanger to jump at the sound. When the smoke cleared, the door had been almost entirely vaporized, with what little remained of the door reduced to molten metal.
Keeping the snarl on his faceplate, Megatron lowered his Fusion Cannon and stormed into the area behind the door that was, just as he'd guessed, a massive laboratory.
While Megatron stormed through the laboratory without giving any of the equipment a second glance, Soundwave examined everything in sight.
Cages filled with massive alien creatures, several races of sentient organics Soundwave hadn't seen before, neutrals, Autobots, and even a few Decepticons unfortunate enough to get on Shockwave's bad side, lined both walls.
Soundwave deduced that the sentients and non-sentients would end up as Shockwaves experiments within the coming orbital-cycle.
Examination tables covered in everything from dead organics, offlined Cybertronians, failed experiments, and several different types of alloys, were littered around the laboratory.
Soundwave looked down at the examination tables closest to him and saw multiple ingots of Dark Energon lying on each table. Where Shockwave had found more of the mysterious substance, Soundwave did not know. But the intelligence officer knew Megatron would want to find out where his head scientist had found the Dark Energon, and whether or not there was more to be found.
Soundwave halted his observations for the time being and began to follow Megatron again.
After Megatron stormed through the laboratory for several klicks in search of his head scientist, he finally found him monitoring the readings of a machine a short distance from him.
The single red optic of Shockwave turned to look at Megatron as he approached. "Ah, Lord Megatron." The scientist said as he looked up from the readings being displayed on computer monitor. "I heard you let yourself in. I will have you know, I just replaced that door after the last one was destroyed by an experiment that got loose."
Megatron walked up to Shockwave and glared at the mech that was a mere two feet shorter than his sixty foot frame. "I would not have had to let myself in if you had done what I commanded and opened the door in the first place!" He hissed.
Shockwave didn't flinch at the glare being sent his way. "I was in a critical phase of my latest experiment. And my experiments are more important that opening a simple door for you, Lord Megatron." The scientist replied in a tone that was on the verge of anger, and that was something that only Shockwave would have gotten away with Megatron for one simple reason. Out of all the Cybertronians in the Decepticon ranks, Shockwave was the only one that could potentially rival Megatron in strength and brutality, and surpass him in intelligence.
"My commands are the only thing that shall be important to you, Shockwave!" Megatron yelled, faceplate contorting in a furious snarl.
"I did not follow the command you gave me a moment ago, and you are standing here." Shockwave said, making a motion with his left servo that would have been one of dismissal, had it not been for the fact Shockwave had a Pulse Cannon for his left servo, since his real one had been destroyed in the final part of the war on Cybertron. "Besides, I believe you will forgive me after you have seen what I was working on instead of unlocking the door."
Now interested, Megatron took a step away from Shockwave, but kept the scowl on his faceplate. "Then show me." He said as he folded his servos behind his backplates.
Shockwave turned back to the computer. "You will see it momentarily, Lord Megatron." He said, then type a command into the computer, causing the machine he was monitoring to open with a hiss and reveal a rack filled with sheets of metal alloy that were glowing red-hot.
Megatron felt a twinge of amusement despite Shockwave's failure to impress him. "Really, Shockwave? You thought wasting your time making armor was more important that letting me into this pointless use of space that is your laboratory?"
Shockwave's single optic shifted from where he was gazing at the sheets of armor, to Megatron. "Lord Megatron, you wound me. This laboratory is a far better use of space than merely more gunships and troop transports, I have created a number of devices here that I would not have been able to do so without using an area this large for experiments." He said. "And the armor you believe I have wasted my time in making is one of the most useful of my creations."
Megatron gave Shockwave a skeptical look before taking a closer look at the red-hot armor. He found nothing different than the usual alloys used in Cybertronian armor. "And what is so useful about this armor, Shockwave?" He asked.
Instead of responding, Shockwave aimed at the armor and powered up his Pulse Cannon, making it seem like the cannon was sucking all noise out of the air in the brief moment before Shockwave fired.
The Pulse Cannon shot impacted the armor plate at hypersonic speeds, transferring a huge amount of kinetic energy to the armor before the shot detonated in a fireball that rivaled the heat of a star. But instead of the armor being reduced to ash, all the Pulse Cannon did to the armor was deform it.
Megatron raised both his optic ridges a fraction of an inch, as close to a surprised look as he allowed himself. "You've found a way to refine a larger amount of Primax out of Cybertronian metals?" He asked.
Shockwave lowered his Pulse Cannon and shook his helm. "Unfortunately not. I have, however, created the alloy you see before you. I call it, Cyberium, it is five times more resistant to heat and kinetic energy than most Cybertronian alloys. And if I am given enough resources, I can create an unlimited supply of it."
Megatron allowed himself a small smile as he reached out and touched the red-hot armor, ignoring the pain the action brought. If he outfitted his entire army with this armor, the Autobots would be at an even greater disadvantage than they already were.
"You will have your resources, Shockwave. I want every Decepticon in our ranks fitted with this armor as soon as possible." Megatron said before fully turning his attention to Shockwave. "What other useful creations do you have in this laboratory?"
A flash of excitement went through Shockwave's optic and he started to walk away. "Come, Lord Megatron." He said as he gestured for the warmonger and Soundwave to follow him. "I have a number of simply marvelous inventions to show you."
Megatron gave the Cyberium armor one last look before he smiled again and followed Shockwave. Fighting the Autobots was about to become much easier.
So there you have it. The Decepticons have gotten some serious reinforcements, the Autobots have gotten some of their own reinforcements, Jazz already knows that Shadowstreaker has feelings for Arcee, Flare Up and Bumblebee have feelings for each other and don't realize the other feels the same way, Elita and Optimus are the same story as Flare Up and Bumblebee... And Megatron has another voice in his head... Couldn't resist adding that last one. Lol.
Sorry if any of you were expecting some action in this chapter, but I decided against having action. Don't get me wrong, I am a full on action junkie, but I just couldn't fit the battles I had in mind for this chapter to work. I might reuse the ideas later on, however.
This chapter's credit song is "Position Music - Sinister Intent" This song really suits how this chapter ended, with Megatron and the Decepticons getting huge upgrade to their armor. Especially since the Decepticons have... You know... Sinister intentions.
So, please be sure to leave a review and thanks for reading. I'll see you soon.