Rated: M for adult themes: language, violence, mental rape, character death, mech erotica, torture, gore, and suicidal ideation. This varies from chapter to chapter, so read at your own risk.
Important Note: I started this series of fics before Revenge of the Fallen hit the theaters. This is an A.U. 2007 movie verse fic, NOT a ROTF/DOTM/AE/LK/BB fic.
Disclaimer: The only thing I own in this work of complete fiction is Velocity/Sira and Hardcore. They are mine. Everything else is copy righted and owned by some really rich people. I make no money from this, but wish I could.
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Full Velocity: Holding Onto the Future
Chapter 54: Scorched Earth
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They spoke very little beyond Ratchet showing her what to do. Velocity laid out sets of tools and clamps in anticipation of returning Autobots needing repairs. She had no clue the purpose of most of the tools but quickly learned Ratchet liked his cutting tools on the left, tools to reattach things on the right, and line clamps in the middle. The activity kept her from overthinking, busying her mind and hands. Any stop in movement and her mind quickly picked at thoughts of Optimus and his weakened condition.
Rolling her light orb out of the way, the femme started another tray of tools. Laying the instruments down one by one and in the designated order, she glanced toward Ratchet. The medic organized and packed his gear, slipping items beneath his armor with practiced ease. Beyond giving her orders, he said little; the air around him hung thick and pensive.
Off to the side, Cliffjumper fidgeted with his makeshift weapons and then his tires. Ordinarily exuberant and chatty, the Autobot had said little. His orb's light cut deep shadows and turned his red armor the color of old blood. Velocity wondered if she looked as threatening in the pallid light.
A rapid staccato of gunshots and all helms snapped towards the door. Velocity glanced towards Ratchet; his facial plates twisted into a grim frown. Distant shouts echoed to them.
Cliffjumper hefted his orb like a torch and tightened his grip on his weapon. "I'm going to see what is happening. Lend a hand if needed." No one argued with him as he slipped out the door of the medbay, the gross light fading down the hallway.
Ratchet returned to packing his gear, and Velocity shuttered her optics, fear bubbling in her lines.
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Cliffjumper followed the sounds of gunfire, realizing the EMP would not affect simple projectile weapons. If the Decepticons knew this and reverse-engineered their guns to be more low-tech like the humans, the Autobots could be in trouble.
The cacophony of gunfire grew nearly intolerable as he neared Central Operations. His audios squelched painfully from the noise, and he barely made out the shouts of humans. Rounding a corner, the Autobot found the soldiers crouched behind crates; their rifles pointed toward the dais of the elevator.
A Decepticon took fire from several directions, the low-caliber weapons would not stop him, but the annoying sting of bullets kept him pinned down. Around his peds smashed orbs and a luminescent fluid covered the floor and painted the mech's lower legs.
Squatting, Cliffjumper addressed one of the men, "Status?"
"We have him pinned for now, but we are running out of ammo. How do we stop him?"
The Autobot surveyed the area, the positions of the men, and their capabilities. An idea popped into his processor. "The chemicals from the orbs are flammable; set him on fire."
"We've tried that; the goo won't ignite."
"Maybe it needs more than a spark from a bullet?" Cliffjumper shrugged.
The soldiers looked at each other and also shrugged. One left the group and ran towards the piles of supplies lining the walls around the central area. Suppression fire kept the Decepticon occupied as the soldier rummaged through the crates. He squatted in the shadows, his actions hidden by the darkness.
Cliffjumper watched as the man stood with a bottle of liquid, a strip of fabric hanging out of the top. A small flame danced from a lighter. When the two objects touched, the fabric caught fire. The man hurtled the bottle towards the 'Con.
The Molotov Cocktail smashed against the floor, and luminescent chemicals exploded, engulfing the Decepticon. Shrieks of pain carried throughout the base as energon leaks from hundreds of tiny bullet punctures began to burn in his lines.
Spinning furiously, blinded by fire and flailing in agony, the Decepticon finally crashed. Heated air and sparks erupted in all directions. The 'Con lay still, his fluids burning brightly, lighting the area like a bonfire. Jerks and twitches ran along his frame as he slowly died from the flames within his mechanics.
The soldier next to Cliffjumper commented, "Wish we had thought of that earlier."
Cliffjumper chuckled and patted the human on the shoulder. "Everything Wheeljack makes is a weapon. No matter how mundane the original purpose, it can be used as a weapon."
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Her pump pounded furiously; the rush of energon through her lines made her antsy. She needed to move. Slipping towards the entrance to the medbay, Velocity quickly poked her head into the hallway, then pulled back. "The hallway is clear, and the gunfire has stopped. Should I go check it out?"
"Absolutely not!" shouted the medic. "You will stay with me at all times," and he continued collecting his supplies. "We are about to be invaded, and I doubt the Decepticons will take prisoners." His optics bore into hers, and fear prickled up her spinal assembly.
Movement outside the door caught her attention. Low to the ground and piercing the shadows, two red points of light stared at her.
Instincts took over. The enemy had entered her home, her sanctuary, her territory. Velocity dropped to her hands and peds, coiling to spring on the intruder. A warning growl rumbled through her vocals. Ratchet's shouts barely registered in her audios, distant warnings she did not understand. Her focus locked on the intruder, the bestial mech that once toyed with her during her capture.
The Decepticon turned to flee.
Velocity launched herself after him, her claws missing his flanks by inches. Landing hard on her shoulder, she slid into a wall. The femme scrambled to her peds and chased after the small Decepticon, following the glow of his optics.
The staggered hallways of the base worked against Velocity. The design prevented her from running at full speed after the intruder. They dodged and wove an erratic path through the maze until the cat-like mech bounded around a corner and disappeared.
Velocity stood in the center of the corridor, her vents heaving to cool her mechanics. Only the still darkness surrounded her. Trailing a hand along the wall, she felt door after door, all of them shut. She stopped counting when she reached a dozen and knew just as many lined the other side. She vaguely recalled this place, an area designed for private quarters. The Decepticon must have slipped into one of the rooms and closed the door behind him. Waiting a couple of minutes, Velocity let her systems cool and hoped an epiphany would materialize.
It did not.
Turning around, she began the walk back to medbay, her audios tuned tightly behind her, hoping to catch the slightest sound of metal claws on the floor.
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Ravage watched the femme retreat. He stayed in the vent a little longer, ensuring she left the area. He wanted to follow her and finish what she had started, but he had other duties. Perhaps later, he could claw through her armor and rip out her spark chamber.
Pushing on the grate, he kept his claws hooked in the mesh keeping it from rattling against the floor. Setting the vent cover aside, he crouched and wiggled his way into the hall. Carefully setting the vent cover back in place, he trotted away, needing to make up for the lost time.
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Sam intently watched his wife; her need for frequent stops made a single flight of stairs arduous. She sucked in deep breaths with every step and gripped the railing as if her life depended on it. At first, he dismissed everything as the weight of a growing baby and all the - stuff that supported it, but halfway up the stairwell, he dismissed that idea. Something was wrong.
"Micky, are you OK?" he asked, his arm wrapped tightly around her.
Mikaela nodded, but the sheen of sweat covering her skin exposed her lie.
Another step and she continued to gasp for air, small tremors shaking along her body.
Another step and the woman doubled over, a moan escaping her. The nurse carrying her I.V. bags moved closer to her, trying to keep the feed tubes from ripping out of her hand. On the stairs, she tried to curl around herself, teetering on a step.
"What's wrong?" Sam nearly screeched, his brain refusing to create logical thoughts.
Panting, she finally formed the word "Contractions" Then continued with her Lamaze breathing.
"No! this isn't happening." Panicking, Sam scooped his wife and unborn child off the stairs. Adrenaline gave him the ability to lift her, but his body remembered he was not known for his strength. Only the intervention of the nurse and soldier kept Sam from dropping his family down half a flight of stairs.
Reduced to brandishing the torch and opening doors, Sam Witwicky, Defeater of Megatron, Savior of the World, had to let another man, a bigger, stronger, better-looking man, carry his wife to safety. If he wasn't so scared, he would be pissed.
Reaching the top of the stairs, Sam swung the door open to the dim hallway leading to a large office area. Numerous windows let in enough light that the torch became a smoky nuisance. Trying to find a place to dispose of the flame, he headed towards an outside door. Pushing it open, the booming clanks of Cybertronians beating each other to death assaulted his ears. In the near distance, Huffer and an orange Decepticon traded punches. Quickly tossing the torch onto the concrete, Sam pulled the door shut and turned the bolt to lock it, then realized how futile the action would be if the Decepticon decided to come through the wall.
Retreating to the interior of the building, Sam found Mikaela lying on a sofa in an office. Their nurse hung the I.V. from a lamp and excused herself to wash up, and motioned for the soldier to follow.
Sam pulled a chair from behind the scarred desk and rolled over to his wife. "How are you?" he asked while sitting down.
Pale and sweaty, Mikaela did not answer, but she offered a weak smile.
"Huffer and some 'Con are having a boxing match outside. I'm not sure we can help him," Sam joked.
Mikaela looked at him, but her focus had turned inward.
Taking her hand, Sam wondered if he was the worst husband on the planet, unable to help anyone.
The nurse and soldier returned, rolls of paper towels from the bathrooms and bottles of water loaded their arms.
"What is all that for?"
Delivering a baby, the woman announced as she deposited her cache on the desk and opened the blinds in a window.
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Slowly Velocity felt her way back toward medical, leaving her orb when she charged after the Decepticon had not been her best moment. Knowing a Decepticon had infiltrated the base, and the impenetrable darkness made her cautious. She paused at intersections and carefully checked for the pale glow of an orb or the harsh light of mech optics. She wasn't exactly lost, since returning, the femme focused on relearning the layout of her home, and she knew she had not traveled far from medical.
As she slid along the dark corridors, the femme noticed a cartoon smile painted on the wall, the black paint bottomless voids in the shadows. Sideswipe's graffiti served a purpose: telling her two more intersections, a left and a right, would place her at medical.
More confident, and the lines of the walls barely visible, she sped up her steps. Trotting half the length of the corridor, she stopped and turned around. She should not be able to see the smiley face. Near the tag art, a box hung on the wall and emitted a soft light. She did not remember the box or if the base had safety lights, but she didn't remember a lot of things. Glancing down the corridor, she saw another box, this one lower on the wall, its light softer, less noticeable.
Velocity walked toward it; the device did not glow as brightly. Reaching the box, she noticed it hung on the wall oddly, slapped up like an afterthought. Angular and squat, it did not blend with the bland decor. She did not like the weird boxes; something about them annoyed her. Finely honed instincts made her alert to subtle changes in her environment, and these – things – made her instincts take notice. Unable to dismiss it as belonging to the base, she ran her hand along the box; it shifted and came loose. Reflexively she caught the item before it smashed to the ground. Surprisingly heavy, its contents sloshed and glowed brighter. Using it as a flashlight, Velocity headed toward medical, taking notice of numerous and similar objects along the walls.
"Weird," she mumbled as she moved through the darkness, not liking the thing in her hand but unwilling to put it down.
Entering the medbay, Velocity still scrutinized the bizarre glowing box. "Ratchet, do you know what this is?"
Whirling at the sound of her voice, the medic rushed towards her. "Are you injured? I don't care how insignificant." Ratchet grabbed her by the arms, his optics roving over her frame, looking for fresh wounds. Not seeing any, his tone hardened, "For the love of Primus," he yelled, "what were you thinking!"
Ignoring his tirade, Velocity held the object between them. "What is this? They are everywhere, and I don't remember them."
Opening his mouth to continue yelling at her, Ratchet glanced at the device, then snapped it shut, his optic shutters widening. Slowly releasing her, the medic moved away. "Carefully put that down, and step away from it."
The cautious words worried her more than the yelling. She did as instructed and set the object on the table next to one of Wheeljack's orbs. In the brighter light, she could see clear containers holding a grainy powder inside the luminescent liquid. "OK, what is it?"
Panic rolled off the CMO in sharp, cold waves. "Help me gather as much as we can. We have to leave."
The femme moved away from the object and helped gather the supplies Ratchet pointed to. "What is it?" she asked again, picked up a set of clamps, rolled them into a pack, and then handed it to Ratchet.
The medic glanced suspiciously at the device, shoving supplies into storage compartments in his frame. "The chemicals dissolve the encapsulated catalyst to create an extremely exothermic reaction."
Velocity translated Rachet's words, "It's a bomb? They are everywhere!" Her words warbled with apprehension.
The light from the bomb shifted from pale blue to a soft green. Ratchet shoved the last items in his frame; he trotted towards the medbay exit, grabbing Velocity's arm on the way out. "We have to go."
Velocity didn't protest as Ratchet dragged her out of medical. Her processor finally caught up, and fear frosted her lines. The Decepticons had planted explosives in her home, a concept she could not grasp. "Ravage?" she asked more to herself.
Pulling her down corridors, Ratchet responded. "Most likely. He is small and easily goes unnoticed. As many bombs as you say, he had help. There are more Decepticons down here."
Weaving their way through the base, every hallway they entered had a Decepticon bomb on the wall, each a shade of blue or green. "Can you disarm them?" she finally asked.
"There are too many. The colors shift as the reactant dissolves the tubes holding the catalysts. We don't have the time."
Rounding a corner, a flickering blaze greeted them; someone had lit a bonfire in the Central Hub. Jogging down the hallway, they joined the soldiers hiding behind makeshift barricades.
On the dais, the corpse of a Decepticon burned, his frame black among the blue and orange flames dancing between his armor plates. The heat threatened to melt the paint off the Velocity's armor as black smoke roiled across the ceiling. Before long, these halls would become a deathtrap for humans, the oxygen consumed and replaced with carbon monoxide and gods knows what other toxins.
"You need to evacuate!" The medic roared.
All heads turned towards him, weapons still pointed toward the burning mech.
"Get out! They planted bombs."
"The shaft is blocked; they are keeping us pinned down." Yelled Cliffjumper from across the fiery expanse.
The soldiers didn't wait and hastily grabbed their gear and started evacuating the area. Their footfalls and rattling weapons blended with the crackles, pops, and hisses coming from the burning mech. Velocity pressed against the wall, giving the retreating soldiers room. Thoughts came sluggish and disconnected; she could not process what was happening, wanting to deny the events around her. A hand clamped around her forearm to unceremoniously drag her down the hallway; she could only stumble after Ratchet.
In a panicked run into the darkness, soldiers and friends lagged, unable to keep up with Cybertronians. Vaguely, Velocity realized Cliffjumper stayed with the humans as she and Ratchet bolted ahead. Before them, the human-sized stairwell angled downward; light from Ratchet's orb turned it into a jagged set of teeth hiding a dark maw.
Releasing her arm, the medic began shoving her forward. "Go!" he ordered. "Get out!"
Velocity stumbled and landed on the stairs, confusion still choking any reason in her processor. "The opening is too small," she protested, glancing at the narrow path to the dark landing above.
"Not for you." Picking her up, Ratchet forced her up the stairway.
Pausing, Velocity turned and balked, "What about you? You won't fit."
"Of all the idiotic – get fragging going, you moronically stupid and stubborn femme. Get the fuck out! I don't need your useless aft in my way!" Ratchet shouted at her.
His words stung, and Velocity scrambled up the stairs on all fours. Wriggling, she slipped onto the landing. A low ceiling room surrounded her, forcing her to remain crouched on her hands and peds. A door blocked her exit. Pushing it open, brilliant daylight greeted her. As her optics adjusted to the painful onslaught, the expected room never materialized. The desert greeted her, lying just beyond the jagged remains of the building that once served as the hub of human activity. She understood how Ravage gained access to the base.
Velocity stumbled into blinding daylight as the ground beneath her rumbled, and a distant strip of ground sank with a billowing plume of dust and dirt. Another rumble shook the ground violently, and another section collapsed. The bombs below detonated, destroying her home and her friends.
"No," she whispered, trying to stand between the tremors.
Closer sections caved in, collapsing tons of rock and dirt. Soot and dust darkened the sky in a brown cloud. As her world imploded beneath her, instincts screamed, "Leave! Run! Get Away!"
Velocity screamed inarticulate terror and fled. Powerful legs carried her over the valley floor and launched her over cavernous holes left by imploded hallways below. More than once, she skidded to a halt, the ground in front of her disappearing. The desert offered her no protection, no place to hide. Weaving through the destruction, she headed towards Tranquility, hoping to find refuge there.
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Hidden among the rubble and waste amassed from the Autobots digging out their earthly base, a pair of pale blue optics watched the destruction below. Her energon froze as the base collapsed; the radial pattern became evident in the scarred ground. A Cybertronian might survive, but humans caught below would either be crushed or suffocated if not rescued soon.
Thick brown plumes filled the valley, obscuring her vision. Grinding her dental plates, the femme punched the wall of her makeshift cave. When the EMP rolled over her, she knew the siege would begin and burrowed deeper into the dirt. She prepared weapons that did not rely on energy and waited for the inevitable onslaught.
The enemy poured over the surrounding hills, so many she didn't even try to count. They destroyed vehicles and buildings, leveling the cannon Optimus had erected and obliterating everything in their path.
She knew she had to leave the area; being this close to the base during a battle risked discovery. As the rumbles of subterranean explosions subsided and dirt hung in the air, obscuring everything nearby, she left her hiding place. Heading towards the abandoned town, the femme wanted to hide among the ruins until the fighting ended.
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