Kaltor idly stacked bolts, washers, and screws into little towers on the front desk. The owner of this shop was a cranky old femme who'd probably yell at him for making a mess of her wares… except that she'd never know because she was already in Nova Cronum. He needed something to do anyway, or he'd have a hard time staying online. Even though Hound had let him catch a few extra joors of recharge and it was nearly the middle of the orn, he still felt like he could doze off if he tried.

The door opened and Kaltor looked up with a smile, ready to welcome the newcomers and show them the way to the caves.

Then he froze.

These mecha weren't refugees.

"Hey, I know you," the taller of the two enforcers approached him, with his partner following close behind. "You're that new mechling. Taken up shopkeeping, I see."

"Uh… modern art, actually," Kaltor said, gesturing to the miniature towers on the front counter as he commed Autoceptor.

The mech crossed his arms. "Where's your senior partner? I should have known he'd be involved with this somehow."

"I'm… not sure what you're talking about," Kaltor said, standing up from his chair and scooting it back. Come on, 'Ceptor, answer the fragging comm… "Autoceptor's got the rest of the decaorn off. He broke an axle, and then contracted a nasty virus. And I got assigned to Clampdown and Deep Cover, but they said they didn't want to risk getting infected with the virus in case I was, so…"

"They in on it too, then?"

"In on… what?"

Finally, Autoceptor answered his comm. "What do you want?"

"Some of the other enforcers are here. I can't remember their designations, but I know these two are bad news. I think we've been compromised—get everyone out of the cave and tell Clamp and Cover they've got to stop sending mecha to the store."

There was silence on the other end.

"Don't play dumb with us, mechling. We know what you're doing here. Where are you sending them? You got some sort of camp down under the city or something? Did you really think that was a good idea?"

"I still haven't got a clue what you're talking about," Kaltor said, backing away from the counter as the other enforcers approached. These two didn't seem to know that the Autobots were involved, so they must have gotten their information from someone lower down—maybe one of the mecha they'd invited to come to the store had turned on them.

"How long can you stall?" Autoceptor asked.

"Um… I don't know. I don't have a good excuse to be here."

"You going to show us where you're sending everyone?" the enforcer asked.

"Then get out of there before they arrest you!" Autoceptor growled over the comm.

"What about everyone in the cave?"

"We'll hide," Autoceptor said. "Go!"

Kaltor took in a deep vent. The other enforcers were in between him and the door and if he went around the counter, that would give them too much time to block him. He had to get past them somehow.

"Well?" the taller mech asked, pulling an energon prod from subspace.

Kaltor stepped up on the chair behind him and leaped over the counter, smashing through his little junk towers and sending bolts and washers flying as he crashed into the second enforcer—the one who'd been quiet so far.

"What…"

"Hey!"

The mech went down and Kaltor sprinted for the door. If he got out there, he could transform and drive away.

Almost there…

Something crashed into him from behind, knocking him to the ground just one step away from the door.

Frag it.

He kicked and rolled, trying to throw the other mech off of him, but the older, more experienced enforcer already had the upper hand. Kaltor heard the second mech approaching as well and stopped struggling.

"'Ceptor, I c—"

His comm. went offline as a pair of stasis cuffs snapped onto his wrists.

Well, he was slagged now.

"Look around, see if you can find some sort of hidden back door." The taller, talkative enforcer grabbed the back of Kaltor's neck and dragged him to his pedes, then steered him over to he front desk again. "Shopkeeper, why don't you tell me what the password is for the computer? We're going to need to check your security feeds."

"You got a warrant?" Kaltor asked.

The other enforcer tried to slam Kaltor's faceplate into the corner of the counter, but Kaltor pushed back, trying to throw the mech off again. He probably couldn't escape at this point, but he didn't really feel like cooperating either.

The enforcer rammed an energon prod into his back and Kaltor gasped, slumping forward against the counter. His armor buffered some of the plasmatic energon but it still hurt.

While he was recovering, the other enforcer turned the settings on the stasis cuffs all the way up, which made it nearly impossible to move.

There was a loud, clattering crash from behind him as if the quieter enforcer had shoved a shelf over.

Of course, they'd trash the place. At least the old femme who'd owned it probably wouldn't have come back anyway.

"Here," the talkative enforcer said. "You don't look so good. Why don't you sit down?"

Kaltor was guided forcefully into the chair behind the counter, and the other mech powered up the computer console. Kaltor's helm was filled with static from the stasis cuffs and his shoulders were already starting to seize up.

"Tell me the password."

"I don't know it," Kaltor said through gritted denta.

This time he couldn't fight as the enforcer grabbed the back of his helm and slammed his faceplate into the edge of the counter.

"Aahhh! I really don't know, I swear. And the security footage won't help you."

"Why?" the enforcer said, letting go of him.

"We turned the cameras off," Kaltor whimpered. It felt like his faceplate had been split in half. At the very least it probably had a nasty dent in it.

The enforcer growled and shoved the energon prod into his side. Kaltor screamed this time—the high settings on the stasis cuffs negated the sensory buffers in his armor.

Lightning coursed through him for what felt like a whole breem before finally dying out. Slowly, he raised his helm, trying to vent evenly. There was another crash as the quieter enforcer shoved another shelf of merchandise over.

Someone was peering through the window, but they darted away when they saw Kaltor looking. The noises in here wouldn't gather much of a crowd, especially if the mecha outside had seen Kaltor's attackers come in. Enforcement brutality was nothing new in this city and most mecha were smart enough to stay away from this sort of thing.

"Let's go back to an earlier question then. Where's your back door?"

Kaltor just shuttered his optics and braced himself. He wanted to give Autoceptor and the others as much time as possible to hide.

"Hey, I found something," the other enforcer said.

Kaltor let out a sigh of relief, and then immediately felt guilty for it.

"This floor panel's got hinges."

The talkative enforcer scooted past Kaltor and went to look.

Sirens sounded in the distance, growing louder.

Kaltor stared up at the door again. If he could get over there fast enough…

He tried to stand up, but his frame didn't want to move. On his second try, he almost managed to get up, but then rocked back into the chair.

The sirens got closer and Kaltor heard the sound of a large transport driving up right outside the shop.

So much for that plan.

Several more enforcers burst in, just as the first two opened the trap door in the corner.

"Hey," the talkative mech said, standing up to address the newcomers. "Looks like they've been sending mecha down there. You mechs bring a transport?"

"Yes," one of the new enforcers said.

"Good. Someone should stay here and guard the entrance while the rest of you go down and check it out. I'll take this one in for questioning." He jerked his helm in Kaltor's direction.

Frag it.

This orn was about to get a lot worse.

Orion answered his comm. even before he came fully online.

"Whatisit?" he muttered.

"Optimus, we need to have an emergency meeting."

"Again, Prowl?" He forced himself into a sitting position.

"The evacuation's been stopped in Central Tarn and one of their coordinators was arrested."

Orion got up. "All right, I'm coming."

He supposed he couldn't ask the mecha in Tarn to refrain from needing help in the middle of the off-cycle. It was on-cycle for them.

As his grogginess faded, resignation and dread slipped in to replace it. Something like this had been almost inevitable, but he'd started to hope…

He walked quietly past a recharging Ironhide and made it to the meeting room, where Mainspring and Prowl were waiting. A moment later, Elita came in. She offered Orion a tired smile and then sat down next to him.

"All right," Mainspring said. "Thank you for coming. Mirage?"

He materialized and took the empty seat next to Mainspring. "Did Prowl tell you I was here? Or can everyone see through my mod now?"

"It was a lucky guess," Mainspring said. "Now…"

"What happened in Tarn?" Elita said. "Is everyone all right?"

"As far as we know, yes," Mainspring said. "The only mech who might not be is the one who got arrested. Unfortunately, he knows about our involvement and would be able to tell the Tarn Council about it."

Orion looked down. "Could we… attempt to rescue him?"

Silence fell around the table for several astroseconds.

"Don't look at me," Mirage said. "I can get in anywhere, but as soon as I'm bringing someone else with me, I lose my advantage. Along with that, I'm not actually trained for that sort of thing. I've certainly never tried breaking anyone out of jail, and I doubt it would go very well if I did."

"Agreed," Prowl said. "I think we have to assume that the Tarn Council either knows, or will soon know, that we've been smuggling their citizens to safety."

"What do you suggest we do?" Orion asked.

"The safest option is to stop the evacuation," Mainspring said. "The mech who was arrested also knows several of the other locations we're evacuating from. And even if he didn't, they'll be looking now. Even if he doesn't tell them we're involved, they'll be watching for other places where mecha are disappearing. And I'm positive they'll find us."

"Also," Elita said. "They have more than eighty thousand mecha in the caverns in Nova Cronum, and distributing energon to them is becoming difficult and costly."

"We can't keep evacuating them," Prowl said.

"But we…"

"Optimus," Prowl said. "We have to stop. We saved a large number of civilians, and we're just lucky something like this didn't happen earlier."

But they still had time. They had almost two orns before the Decepticons attacked. In that time they could rescue thousands more mecha.

Prowl was right. It wouldn't be worth it if the mecha they were trying to help got hurt or captured. As it was, the Autobots were already putting themselves in a dangerous position.

But…

"Should I comm. everyone and tell them the next bridge will be the last?" Mainspring asked. "We can probably go one more round before we shut down entirely."

"That sounds reasonable," Prowl said.

"Orion?" Elita asked, putting a hand on his arm.

"No," Orion said.

Prowl sighed. "I told you, we can't…"

"We can keep helping them," Orion said. "It may be more dangerous for us now, but I would rather get more mecha out of Tarn, even if it means the Decepticons know we were involved in the evacuation."

Prowl frowned at the table. "We can't keep doing what we've been doing," he said. "They'll catch everyone who's been helping."

"Then we'll do something else," Orion insisted.

Silence fell around the table again. Orion looked around the table from one faceplate to the next, hoping against hope that they wouldn't argue.

After several astroseconds, Elita spoke. "Orion, I don't know what we can—"

"Wait," Prowl said, looking up.

Orion met his optics.

"There is… one thing we could try…"

Autoceptor didn't dare move as he watched the enforcers search through the dark cavern. The thirty or so mecha who'd been in the cave were all crammed in behind him. The little side passage ended in a dead end, and there had barely been enough room for everyone to pack in. He tensed as an enforcer shone a light in their direction, but while the light crossed over their hiding place, shining in Autoceptor's optics, the mech carrying it didn't seem to notice.

He would have to apologize to Hound. He'd made fun of the "party trick" the Autobot had been using to keep the sparklings and younglings entertained.

Now it was saving their afts.

They waited in silence. Hound had said he couldn't mask their sound, so all of the civilians behind him were trying to be as quiet as they could. There was still an occasional shuffle, or a whimper from one of the younger ones.

But so long as no one came too close—so long as the echoes of the other enforcers' pedes covered up the noise of the refugees' engines…

"Well, there's pedeprints all over the ground," one of the enforcers, a mech designated Radar, said. "And this is where the signs led."

"They must have been warned and moved somewhere else," a mech Autoceptor knew as Impulse replied, shining his light all over the walls.

"We should move on and look elsewhere," Tax, who was the highest ranking enforcer in the room, said. "But just in case, Radar, I want you to stay here and guard the place. Comm. us if anyone shows up. Once we've swept the area, we'll let you know you can head back to the surface."

Radar nodded, and the other enforcers left the cavern through a different side passage.

Autoceptor got a three-way comm. and he saw Hound jump slightly, which meant the Autobot was probably one of the other two in the conversation.

He joined the channel.

"Hi," an unfamiliar voice said. "We can get you a bridge out of there, but it'll have to be soon. Are you still in danger?"

"Yes," Autoceptor replied. "How long can you wait?"

"Half a joor at the most, but the sooner, the better."

Autoceptor looked at the enforcer standing in the middle of the cave. "Give us five breems."

Hound turned to look at him with wide, confused optics.

"All right."

"We'll let you know as soon as we're ready. It's going to need to be fast."

"We'll be waiting."

Autoceptor cut the comm. and commed Hound on a private, internal frequency.

"What are we going to do about the enforcer?" Hound asked him.

"Can you hide me while I'm moving? Make me blend in with the walls or the floor or something?"

"Well… I can camouflage you but it'll be hard to get rid of your shadow entirely."

"Good enough. We'll wait a few breems, and I'll go knock him out. Then you an the others can go through the bridge before anyone else comes back here."

Hound shot him a questioning look. "What about you?"

"My idiot of a trainee's got himself arrested, and I have to try and rescue him before they torture him to death." They must have taken the stasis cuffs off of him, because Autoceptor had started getting Kaltor's tracker location and vitals again.

He knew the building at those coordinates and it was not a good place for prisoners. So far, Kaltor's energon levels were still pretty good, and his spark pulse was only a little weaker than normal, but that didn't mean they weren't hurting him. Stupid mechling.

Autoceptor should have been the one up there in the shop. He'd wanted to make sure mecha got through the bridge safely, but he should have realized it would be more dangerous up in the city.

"Let me know when you're ready," Hound said. "So I can be ready."

Autoceptor gave it another breem and then nodded to Hound, and squeezed past him out into the cavern. He moved slowly, careful to keep his pedes silent on the ground as he shifted one hand into a blaster and set it to stun.

He glanced down once, and it was very disconcerting to see… nothing where his pedes should have been, but he didn't have time to dwell on it. He crept right behind Radar and fired the stun shot directly into the back of his helm.

The younger enforcer collapsed silently. Autoceptor caught him and lowered him to the ground, then turned to look at the wall. He couldn't even tell where the passage was until Hound dropped the hologram.

Autoceptor nodded.

An astrosecond later, a groundbridge opened, and Hound waved everyone out of the passage.

Mecha flooded out of the passage and rushed forward to file through the bridge. They were hushed, but their pedes still made too much noise. Autoceptor watched the main entrance to the cave warily.

Once the civilians had gone through, Autoceptor gestured for Hound to follow them, but the green and grey Autobot hesitated.

A tall blue mech came through the groundbridge, and looked down his olfactory sensor at Autoceptor.

"Officer," Mirage nodded.

"Noblemech," Autoceptor replied with a scowl. "We can't talk here. We've probably only got a few breems before this mech's friends show up." He gestured to the unconscious enforcer on the ground.

"Well, we need to talk somewhere," Mirage said. "There's been a change in plans."

"I get it," Autoceptor said. "You mechs can't help anymore, so you're leaving the rest of us to our fate. It's fine, you—"

"Actually, we're still going to try and get more of you out, but we have to change tactics. If we can't talk here, then we should go somewhere we can talk."

The groundbridge closed.

"Hey!" Autoceptor said, then looked at Hound.

Mirage followed his gaze.

"It's all right," Hound said. "I was going to ask if I could stay and help anyway."

"And who exactly are you?" Mirage asked.

"He's one of you Autobots," Autoceptor said. "Come on, follow me and I'll see if I can get us out of here without getting caught."

The view from the top of the building showed, more than anything, how polluted Kaon's skies were. I could barely make out the mecha below through the thick, rust-colored haze, small specks making trails through the distant, grimy streets.

There were parts of Iacon like this as well, but you couldn't see them from Mirage's tower. The tower that the Decepticons were using as a base had once been occupied by a wealthy businessmech—Kaon's equivalent of nobility. Megatron didn't see the irony of that, though he was having a permanent base built elsewhere.

Demolishor came up behind us. He had been a guard in the gladiator pits, and part of Megatronus's movement from the beginning. Something about his blind loyalty irritated me. Or maybe he was just irritating in general—Megatron certainly seemed to think so.

"Lord Megatron."

Megatron turned away from the view. Does he really have to come tell me every little thing?

"Lord Megatron," Demolishor repeated, bowing. "The troops are ready to move out, on your command."

Megatron raised an optic ridge. That's sooner than I expected. We still have an orn. "Thank you, Demolishor."

The mech joined them at the edge, looking out over the city, shooting a suspicious glance in my direction. He knew I was from Iacon, and didn't think I could be trusted. In addition, he had expected to be Megatron's closest advisor, and wasn't happy that I'd claimed that role instead.

"Is there something else?" Megatron asked.

"Uh, no, Sir," Demolishor said, backing away again. "Unless you have any orders for me, Sir."

"Not at the moment." Is he going to take the hint, or do I have to order him to leave?

Demolishor bowed and walked away.

Megatron frowned, focusing his attention out over the city again. Our reserves of energon were being rapidly depleted. We needed to re-staff the mines, but he was loathe to ask any of his followers to work in them.

"Will one orn make a difference?" he asked, running through his plans in his helm. We have to make sure we don't just kill everyone. We'll take out the Council, take over, put Straxus in charge. Anyone who won't swear loyalty to the cause can work in the mines instead. There should be plenty. About a fourth of the population, if reports are correct, and if even half of those refuse to swear loyalty to me...

Because Kaon was at the opposite latitude from Kalis, the sun reached the same angle in the sky, following the same path. Except here, it swung to the north instead of the south.

"Soundwave?" Answer me. Will it help us if we attack an orn early?

I kept looking out over the city, trying to decide what to say. This whole thing felt wrong.

"What?"

"Could we… offer to pay mecha to work in the-e mi-ines?" Fragging stutter. I had so little need to speak recently that it was creeping back in from lack of practice.

He frowned at me.

We used to stand on the roof of the school in Kalis, and he'd look out over what he could see of the sector, making plans to change the world for the better.

That sounds like something Orion would say.

"Orion wasn't wro-ong about eve-erything."

Megatron shook his helm.

"Can't we sho-ow them we-e-e can be better than the Co-ouncils?"

Swapping the oppressed out for another group of largely innocent mecha wasn't what Searchlight would have wanted to do.

"How do you propose we accomplish that? What would we pay them with?" Megatron asked. I agree that would be better, but the logistics…

At least he was considering it.

But now, I didn't really have an answer.

"I understand your sentiment," Megatron said, glancing in my direction before looking out over the city again. "But it may be too late for that, and we have to consider our resources. We need more energon—we need mecha in the mines. We can't pay them as much as they deserve at this point, so we have to find another alternative. Can you accept that?"

I looked down.

"The Councils must end. They must. And we have to do everything we can in order to end them. After that, we can re-build. After that, we can make things fair for everyone. I thought you agreed with me that Orion's route was too slow."

I nodded.

Soundwave still cares. He cares about the common mecha in Tarn who don't agree with us. That is something valuable.

Megatron looked up at the blue sky. Up this high you could only see a faint tint of brown above. Almost all the pollution was beneath us.

I cared about my friends in the mines, before they were killed. That's what started me down this path. I will make society pay for its wrongdoings, and I will set the world right. But it's a good thing I don't have to do it alone, because I've lost whatever it is this mech still has.

"I'm counting on you," he said. "To help me set up something new—something better—once we've torn down the corrupt system. But in the meantime, I need your support, even if I ask you to do things you aren't comfortable with."

I hesitated.

"Is that agreeable, Soundwave?"

I nodded.

I couldn't say no.

"What difference will it make if we attack this orn instead of next orn?"

I considered the possibilities. If our soldiers were ready now, then waiting an orn didn't make sense. The sooner we took Tarn, the sooner we'd have mecha in the mines, and the sooner we'd be able to increase our army. Furthermore, from what we knew, the Autobots weren't ready for our attack. But even though they didn't have an army yet…

"If the Autobots guess that we're preparing for an attack, Prowl could counte-ermove."

Megatron nodded. "True. Every astrosecond we wait gives him time to scheme. Can you think of any drawbacks to attacking earlier?"

I shook my helm.

Very well then.

Megatron spent another breem looking out over Kaon and then commed Demolishor.

"Yes, Lord Megatron?"

"I've changed my mind," he said. "I do have orders for you. Communicate to our forces that we'll be moving out in half a joor."