Four out of five sets of optics remained trained on the small communications console next to the co-pilot seat in Springer's small Class IV Plant Hopper, as Hot Rod, Kup, Blurr and Arcee watched for any response from their allies on Earth. Springer himself risked a quick couple of sidelong glances, even as he tried to keep his optics straight ahead, looking for Decepticon activity outside the shuttle viewscreen.
Hot Rod clenched and unclenched his fists, even though only mere seconds had passed since Kup had sent a desperate transmission to the Autobot Earthforce, informing them of the shuttle's desperate situation, it felt to the young Autobot like aeons as everyone on-board willed the communicator to respond with every pulse of their sparks. Suddenly the speaker crackled into life.
"-bot Blaster, communication received. We are sending reinforcements but it will take time, do you copy, over?"
Blurr and Arcee smiled and looked up hopefully but Hot Rod noticed Kup remained grim-faced. Kup was stoic and often borderline grumpy at the best of times, but Hot Rod could tell the veteran Autobot, who had fought a thousand different campaigns against the Decepticons over millions of years was worried.
"Shield power down to thirty percent," Springer noted as he tried to coax every possible bit of speed out of his shuttle.
"Blaster, this is Kup, please provide E.T.A of reinforcements, over."
Hot Rod realised that they were hours away from Earth. Even if the Autobots scrambled now, there was every chance they'd only arrive to find the wreckage of the shuttle and five Autobot corpses floating in deep space.
"Blaster, do you copy, over?" Kup enquired frantically into the headset.
"SorryKupwe'recutoffagainI'llseewhatIcando," Blurr was already trying to adjust the controls to the communication console, but from what little Hot Rod had read of Soundwave, the fearsome Decepticon Communication Specialist, there was little chance he would slip up again and allow further communication between the shuttle and Earth. Like it or not, they were on their own.
A massive explosion on the left hand side of the shuttle rocked all on board, even despite their engaged magna-locks. Kup suddenly snapped away from the communicator and addressed his troops.
"Blurr, forget the communicator. I want you in the co-pilot chair. See if you can find anything, a moon, an asteroid, a planet which looks solid. We're gonna need to try and land and hold them off on foot."
Even as Blurr slid into the co-pilot chair, Kup addressed the whole room.
"Ok troops, here's the plan," Kup began. "A rescue is unlikely and we won't be able to hold out much longer. Arcee – you and I are to line up by the shuttle bay doors. Hot Rod – take the door control. On my signal, we're gonna open the doors and Springer is going to drop the shields. We'll have ten seconds to get a sight of the enemy and hopefully snap off a few shots. Then we'll bring the shields back up and close the door. We'll continue doing that, and we'll do it at random intervals so they can't figure out a pattern and it might even keep them in one place. Remember people – we likely have multiple targets but aim for whoever the primary transport is. The rest are only equipped for short-range flight in space. Line up the shot and make it count. Let's go."
Hot Rod was both excited and disappointed. Excited that they were finally going to be able to get some shots in themselves and hopefully take down a few of Megatron's supposed elite Decepticons, but disappointed that he was on door opening and closing duty.
"Kup, you should man the doors and I'll take the gunner role!" Hot Rod declared with the confidence borne of youth, even as he sent a mental command to drop his targeting visor over his optics.
Kup glared at him, annoyed at his orders being questioned.
"Negative. Just operate the door console."
Hot Rod may have been impetuous but he could tell by Kup's tone of voice that he had annoyed him. So could Arcee, although Springer and Blurr gave no inclination they had heard the conversation. Hot Rod acquiesced to his commander's orders and manned the door, chastened despite the lack of an obvious rebuke.
A dull explosion sounded near the rear doors of the shuttle and Hot Rod realised that this might allow Kup and Arcee the chance to spot their aggressors early.
"On my mark." Kup's voice was calm and collected.
"Now!"
Hot Rod pressed the door release even as Springer dropped the shields. Hot Rod was slightly taken aback as the vacuum of space pulled at him but his magna-locks held firm, although a couple of unsecured knick-knacks of Springer's which had adorned his flight console shot out into the vacuum.
"Mark thirty two!" Arcee's voice crackled on the inter-Autobot radio as she let loose a volley of laser fire, Hot Rod homed in on the position and saw a white and red aircraft of strange design veer to the side to narrowly avoid the laser bolts.
"Acknowledged. Transport at mark four point three!" Kup responded even as he fired off a couple of shots from his battered old laser rifle toward a huge grey and purple shuttle. Arcee instantly fired towards the co-ordinates identified by Kup, and Hot Rod took the opportunity to snap off a few shots from his forearm lasers. All the shots found their mark but appeared to do no damage to the huge shuttle. Arcee kept firing even as a couple of blasts of purple laser fire hit the rear of the shuttle.
At exactly the ten second mark, Hot Rod reactivated the door control and it shot back down, sealing them in.
"All right we survived that!" Hot Rod exclaimed, giddy at now having got some retaliation in.
Kup frowned and reloaded his weapon, before taking up position again. Arcee followed his example even as the shuttle lurched once again.
"We've found a decent sized asteroid, and we're breaking towards it," Springer said. "If anyone feels like doing something incredibly heroic and improbably successful, now might be a good time!"
Kup gave another signal and Hot Rod and Springer again opened the rear door and dropped the shields, as Kup and Arcee located Astrotrain and the white and red Decepticon jet veering to follow them, and let loose with laserfire.
"Duck!" yelled Arcee as a small winged Decepticon suddenly swooped into the inside of the shuttle and peppered the inside with laser bolts, three of which ripped into Hot Rods shoulder and another narrowly missed Blurr's head and singed the viewscreen.
"It's Buzzsaw!" Kup yelled, even as he kept firing at Astrotrain. They couldn't now close the doors until Buzzsaw was repelled.
"Get the hell off my shuttle!" Springer snarled across the radio and whirled around in the pilot's chair, firing a blast with incredible accuracy and hitting Buzzsaw a glancing blow on the side of the head, even as Springer turned back to his controls. Stunned, the Decepticon fell backwards out of the shuttle, Hot Rod ignored the pain shooting through his shoulder and pulled himself upright to close the rear door again.
Kup looked at Springer curiously. The green pilot was matter-of-factly back at the controls doing his job, and didn't even seem to be armed.
"You mind telling me what that was?" Kup enquired gently.
Springer raised his forearm and a small compartment opened up to reveal a laser built into his forearm. He grinned at Kup and then turned back to the controls, the asteroid they were aiming for was clearly visible now.
"You're just full of surprises aren't you, lad?" Kup muttered quietly. "Regardless – good work."
The Decepticon barrage seemed to have ceased for the moment. Hot Rod wondered if retrieving the stricken Buzzsaw had taken priority. The Autobots had files on all the major Decepticons and it was known that Soundwave was fiercely protective of his cassettes. On the plus side, this meant that they had caught themselves a breather, if only for a few moments. On the downside, if Buzzsaw was seriously injured, there was every chance Soundwave would return that pain a thousand-fold on Springer. Hot Rod suddenly remembered another detail from Soundwave's file.
"Kup – if Soundwave takes us alive, he can extract information from our minds, cant he?"
Kup looked at Hot Rod, grim-faced, and nodded. This was serious. Kup was one of the highest ranking officers in the Autobot resistance on Cybertron. He knew troop numbers, deployments, formations, maps, secret bases, enough to allow the Decepticons to crush what little of the Autobots remained if they gained access to the information.
Kup switched to a private inter-Autobot channel with Hot Rod.
"If it looks like we're gonna lose, then we'll have to activate our destruct codes, if Soundwave somehow blocks that, you'll have to take me out, kid."
"Kup, I can't do that!"
"You'll have to. Do you really see Blurr or Arcee as being capable of it? And this isn't Springer's fight. That's why I picked you lad – I can see potential greatness in you, and that sometimes means being the one to make the tough decision."
Hot Rod put his hand to his injured shoulder and nodded slowly at Kup. Blurr came over to him and started to examine his injuries, even as Kup walked away. With no recognised medic on Cybertron the Autobots medical capabilities were limited to a few who were able to carry out battlefield repairs on minor injuries, and given his speed and relatively efficient fuel consumption Blurr was an ideal candidate for rudimentary field medicine. More serious injuries usually resulted in stasis for the injured Autobot. There were a lot of Autobots in stasis, Hot Rod mused to himself as Blurr gently tested his arm flexion. Stasis saved on resources, and they could hopefully be repaired by a skilled medic later, but if Soundwave did manage to extract any information from the team, he was sure to slaughter all those helpless patients.
Hot Rod steeled his spark. Kup had chosen him for a reason, and he would not let him down. He would fight until his spark failed, to prevent it, but if he had to, he would take Kup out before any information could be extracted from him. He owed the cranky old drill sergeant that much.
"Closing in on the asteroid," Springer informed the team. Laser fire had stopped for now, but the Decepticons would be back soon. Kup was up next to Springer and Arcee looking anxiously out of the viewscreen for a good location to set down and try to create a defensive position. It was going to be the most crucial fight any of them had ever been in. Hot rode swore privately to Primus that he would see the asteroid surface knee-deep in Decepticon innermost energon before they got their wretched hands on any of his companions. He looked at them – a gunner, a courier, a sergeant and a pilot. He looked down at himself – a rebel without a cause. Well he had one now – the fate of his friends. It was time to make a stand. Even as he prepared himself mentally and Blurr gave hima reassuring nod about his injuries, Kup pointed out a half-formed rocky outcrop.
"Take us down there, Springer my boy. And then lets everybody get ready to fight like the fate of the galaxy was at stake."
Springer nodded, with just the hint of a grim smile spreading across his face, and the shuttle started to descend as he worked the controls. Blurr picked up his handgun and moved to the shuttle doors, even as Arcee adjusted the setting on her laser rifle and lowered her targeting visor again. Kup crossed his arms and watched as Springer expertly set the shuttle down. Hot Rod picked up an extra rifle and moved up beside Blurr.
Time to show what they were made of.
Author's notes:-
So this was a lot harder to write, as, whilst the first part was written from Kup's point of view and he is a very easy and rewarding character to write, Hot Rod is not easy and is not (at this stage at least) rewarding in the slightest.
I suppose I had to focus on Kup's faith in Hot Rod and Hot Rod's own desire to repay that faith, as the crux of this (admittedly short) part of the story.
As for the Decepticons – I want to portray them as the dangerous killers that they are. Whilst in the cartoon they're not the most efficient, you have to remember they're up against Optimus Prime and the cream of the Autobot forces (who outnumber them) the majority of the time. Up against a shuttle of Autobot "nuggets" they should be a force to be reckoned with.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed, followed or favourite Chapter 1 – I hope you enjoy this and stick with me. Any additional readers are more than welcome as is any and all feedback. I do want to get better, and currently have more chapters of this story planned!