Ultra Magnus landed the ship a few yards from the ruins, observing the area below with extreme caution. He saw random charcoal spots where a battle ensued, small broken parts laid scattered all around the former base. The darkened sky showed no signs of Decepticons or human jets, and nothing but a military truck tilted on it's side was in sight beside the former camp. In the distance, Ultra Magnus could see offline husk's and shattered Decepticon flyer's, he couldn't tell if any of the pieces belonged to Blur or Parate. He pondered about turning the ship around, and take them anywhere else for a brief moment.
Tobit and Steele were jumping up and down, grunting and scrambling to climb on top of the monitor. Bulkhead scooped the boys into his large arms and backed up. WheelJack stood next to Ultra Magnus, looking around frantically for Senti.
"The base...it's gone. No one's here. Everyone's gone." Bulkhead whispered, keeping his voice low while Steele and Tobit squirmed in his arms.
Faded, black smoke raised from the ground like ashen towers, tents and buildings were scorched to ashes and stilts. An unwelcomed, and terrifying memory worked it's way into Bulkhead's processor. Just as they lost their first base, the Decepticons have taken another home from them. It was bad enough that the Autobots were practically exiled from Cybertron, then the Decepticons destroyed the base in Jasper, now they have no home and the humans of Jasper were caught in the crossfire.
Fortunately, they did not see Optimus laying around half dead. In fact, they didn't see any bodies, human or Autobot.
"We need to investigate." Ultra Magnus decided. WheelJack ran and waited on the ramp, Ultra Magnus spun out of his chair and went to Bulkhead and the boys. Gently, he pulled each boy out of Bulkhead's arms and placed them down on their antsy landing pads. Tobit made a run to the front, but was quickly yanked back. Ultra Magnus knelt down to their level, making sure they were looking directly at his optics.
"Both of you are to remain here and out of sight. Do you understand?" Ultra Magnus asked, in a commanding tone.
"But, sir-"
Ultra Magnus put a servo up, and Tobit clamped his mouth valve shut. "Tobit, now is not the time for arguments. Until further notice, you and Steele are under our care, your safety takes top priority. That means both of you are to do as I say, and remain hidden until we return."
Tobit was too panicked to listen. He wanted to see his family.
"But I-"
"Come on, kiddo." WheelJack stepped in, realizing Tobit was going to insist on going with them. "Gotta listen to gramps."
"Beside's, we'll be back before you even know it." Bulkhead assured with an uncertain smile. Tobit backed away, shaking his head, fear showed heavily in his optics.
Steele grasped Tobit's servo. Gasping, Tobit met Steele's equally scared optics begging Tobit to stay. WheelJack's words from earlier still echoed in Tobit's processor like a song stuck on repeat. Tobit pouted, and looked away from everyone, keeping silent.
Ultra Magnus nodded, recognizing he had won, and joined WheelJack and Bulkhead on the ramp. With one last look at the boys, Ultra Magnus hit the button to make the ramp go down. As the ramp carried the Wrecker's down, Ultra Magnus couldn't tear his attention away from Tobit and Steele, their terrified expressions made his spark sore. They reminded him of Rim whenever his creator was going back into war. He was well aware of their fear, and that they wanted to be comforted and told everything was alright. However, both Tobit and Steele were smarter, and knew nothing was alright.
When the Wrecker's were out of sight, Tobit and Steele ran to Ultra Magnus's chair, climbed up and onto the control panel with their servos pressed against the window. Through the window, they watched the Wreckers tread cautiously up to the former base with their weapons drawn. Then they looked at what was once their home, scanning frantically for any sign of their carriers. Tobit figured his creator was still with Optimus and Smokescreen, he also knew his father knew how to take care of himself. However, he wasn't certain if his mother could fight.
"I-I don't see anyone, I don't see my mom or yours. Do you?" Tobit asked.
Everything was dead.
Nothing moved.
No one made a sound.
It was as if the smallest sound would alert Megatron or Starscream.
"Looks like everyone got out before the worse hit this joint." WheelJack observed, picking up an empty, crushed energon cube. Tossing it to the side, he did a quick glance around the vast openness of Nevada, hoping to see some kind of sign. "Now, just gotta figure out where they'd went."
Ultra Magnus dug through the debris and pulled out a slightly damaged data pad, one of the many Bianna used during her teachings.
"How did that survive?" WheelJack asked.
"If this pad is still active, there is a chance someone left a sign, a clue to their whereabouts." He pressed a button on the data pad and the screen turned a bright blue. "Let us hope Optimus Prime was still on his mission when this attack occurred. Odds are Ratchet, or Teama, concocted a plan to bridge everyone else away, and found a temporary base."
The data pad beeped, and a jumble of white cybertronian letters appeared on the screen, and down below were four lines like the cybertronian version of Hang Man. Ultra Magnus pressed and dragged the letters directly to the lines below, and the pad replied with a deep beep. The letters bounced directly back up to their original spots. Ultra Magnus sighed, trying to figure out the code.
"Hey, hold it Chief, let me try something." WheelJack yanked the data pad out of Ultra Magnus's servos and began organizing the letters.
"Now's not the time for puzzles and games, Jackie." Bulkhead stated, walking up to them. Not even a minute later, the data pad beeped and showed the map of the USA. It closed in on Nevada, a white circle appeared on one side and a pink one appeared on the other side of Nevada almost on the state line. 448.5 miles away from where they stood, not even half day's drive without the human nuisance called traffic.
"Thought so. Reno." WheelJack said, handing the data pad back to Ultra Magnus. "Babe said the girls were here years before any of us. One of their bases was in one of the mountain's outside Reno. Big mountains, practically in between states, whatever that means, and they got an engineer raised by Doc. No wonder how they survived. "
"I assume these directions will lead us there?" Ultra Magnus asked.
"Yeah, problem is," WheelJack bent over, pointed to the pink dot. "This base is a few hours away human time, without traffic or Decepticon trouble. It'll be dark half way there." WheelJack observed, then he nodded to the ship. "We've got two boys to look after, I think we outta take shelter til dawn."
Ultra Magnus wanted to argue that they should leave as soon as possible. His spark begged to hold his daughter, to know she was safe and unharmed. He, desperately, needed to know she wasn't taken by Decepticons. He couldn't live with himself if she were at Megatron's mercy, especially if he discovered her power. But WheelJack had a point; he couldn't risk the boys' lives or their's. And he had no idea if Decepticon's had this place under surveillance.
"Very well." He stood, turned the pad off and clipped it onto his hip. "WheelJack, find a safe harbor for the night. Bulkhead, with me, we need to ensure the boys we will find their mothers."
"Hit the deck!" WheelJack suddenly shouted, jumping and rolling to the side with his blaster cannon ready to fire. Ultra Magnus transformed and zoomed to the ship. Bulkhead remained closely behind WheelJack, his servo transformed into a wrecking ball. He looked around, waiting for the hail of blaster fire from either direction. Then he looked up, above them was a large, metal fire ball falling towards them like a meteor. It landed with a loud thud, skidded to a halt in the middle of their former base. Steam rolled off the ball, and cracks began to show around the bottom of the shell.
Bulkhead and WheelJack, with their weapons armed, carefully approached the pod as it opened, and a large husk fell out. Both of them jumped back, expecting the large husk to suddenly come to life and start attacking. For a long moments, they stood still and the husk didn't move. WheelJack braved a few steps, then he paused, wait and then walk a few more steps. He stood over the offline husk and nudged him with his landing pad.
"Whoa, watch it." Bulkhead warned, aiming his blaster cannon at the husk's head.
"Don't worry, just out cold." WheelJack assured, still keeping his weapon out for precautionary reasons. "Check it out, Bulk, his sigil's all scratched out. I think I've seen him before."
"Wait, when?"
"When I was held for interrogation, I saw them haul a few of their own for 'reassessment'." WheelJack answered, deeming it safe enough to put his cannon away. "Reckon he was one of those. I know one thing for sure, the scratched out sigil means he's been labeled a traitor, looks like he's been through hell and back."
"So what do we do?"
"Might be useful, maybe we can get any info out of him. Who knows; maybe he's a changed bot."
While Bulkhead remained guarding the unconscious, and bounded prisoner, and WheelJack searched for a safe place, Ultra Magnus remained in his ship with Tobit and Steele. He didn't exactly approve of them keeping the Decepticon online, traitor or not, let alone within sight of Tobit and Steele. Of course, he knew they had disobeyed and went to the window right after they left, but he didn't blame them. They were just sparklings worried about their family after all. Neither of them had left the window since they arrived, as if waiting to see their carrier's at any moment.
The sky had turned pitch black, stars shined in the vast blackness. It was late, and Ultra Magnus could see the boys were struggling to keep their head's up or their knees from giving out.
"Tobit, Steele, come away now. Your carrier's will not arrive tonight." Ultra Magnus said, picking them up one at a time, and placed them down on the ground. Their sad optics made his spark ache. "There is no need to look so sullen. We will find them." Ultra Magnus assured them. Tobit's faceplate hardened, but Ultra Magus could see the lubricants forming in Tobit's optics. Tobit reminded him of Bianna whenever she was worried; she would try to pull a brave face, say she wasn't worried at all, but the truth always showed in her optics.
"Where's everyone? Where did they go, Gramps?" Tobit asked, holding Steele's trembling servo tightly.
Ultra Magnus thought for a moment, he couldn't tell them he didn't know. The last thing any sparkling wanted to hear was that no one knew where his mother was, or that he might never see her again. He didn't believe in lying or 'sugar coating' facts just to make things better. However, that made his decision that much harder to make.
"We will find her." He promised, sitting down with his back against the wall. He nodded slightly, gesturing for the boys to join him. Without hesitating, Tobit ran and jumped into Ultra Magns's lap. He curled into a tight ball and began to sob quietly. Ultra Magnus looked up at Steele, who looked down uncertainly at his landing pads.
"I was also referring to you. Come."
Slowly, with his head down, Steele walked over and climbed into Ultra Magnus's lap next to Tobit. He rested his head against Ultra Magnus's chest plate and dozed.
