Whose Side Are You On?
*Points* This is BLUEBIRD SOARING's REQUEST. All related insanity is your fault!
Thank you to Starfire201 for the congrats on the milestone! I had not realized it was close to 1000 reviews until you mentioned I had went over.
"GUEST"… THANK YOU for all your wonderful reviews. At least I hope it's the same one and not many. If there's more than one reviewing, my apologies! I always send messages to reviewers and without a sign in name, I have no way to thank you personally.
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"What you're suggesting will get someone killed!" Prowl snapped, optics boring into Sideswipe's.
'What if it's someone we don't like?" Sideswipe retaliated. "Would you attempt it then?"
"If we allowed everyone we didn't like to be terminated, then the world would be empty," Prowl responded, a door wing flicking in time with his words.
"No, there'd be one mech left. The survivor." Sideswipe countered.
The twitching door wing stopped. Prowl's optics narrowed, a growl threatening low in his chassis.
"It would be wiser to fortify the northern region," Prowl said, his voice stern, hard, in an attempt to control his emotions. Most bots claimed he didn't possess emotions. All they had to do was witness him near Sideswipe and they would be proven wrong. How the ruby mech was able to bring the normally, calm, centered tactician to enraged, boiling anger, Prowl doubted he'd ever understand.
"It's already a heavily fortified territory," Sideswipe said, taking a step toward Prowl. "The troops should be pulled from that area and use to reinforce a weak area."
"Who is the tactician of this army?" Prowl asked, not backing down.
"Apparently a mech with tin struts." Sideswipe jeered.
"Your plan proposes that we could lose the north quadrant," Prowl snapped, doorwings now held in rigid formation. It looked painful.
"We need to reinforce the left flank on the southern region," Sideswipe said, pointing to the indicated region.
"But that will leave us vulnerable in the north," Prowl said, his face etched in annoyance. How dare Sideswipe question his tactical abilities! It was beyond insulting!
"That is a strong hold and we have more than ample defenses for it," Sideswipe said. "The protection there is overkill. We need to move a third of the soldiers to the southern region."
"Our hold there is tedious." Prowl snapped. "To send troops there will alter the balance. The northern quadrant is our best chance at victory. To send troops away from there would weaken its defenses."
"Oh for Primus sake!" Sideswipe snapped, throwing his hands up in the air in mock defeat. "Sending a third of the battalion to another sector isn't going to weaken the system so severely that the whole structure collapses! What is wrong with you?"
"What's wrong with me?" Prowl growled, fists forming at his sides. "What's wrong with you? You wish to send troops into a heavily occupied area that technically has no strategic stronghold to speak of! And you expect me to endanger more lives on the off chance it will be lost?"
"You going to say something?" Bluestreak asked in a hushed voice. He didn't like seeing the calm tactician raging and glaring. It didn't seem natural. Altercations between allies made Bluestreak nervous.
"No," Sunstreaker answered just as softly. "I'm not getting in the middle of this."
Bluestreak gave a nod of affirmation, his optics going to the two arguing mechs like a verbal tennis match. His door wings were fluttering in an agitated way. He was clearly worried that the confrontation would turn physical.
"The south holds strategic value," Sideswipe said in hopes of appealing to Prowl's battle computer.
The tactic didn't work. Prowl's doorwings hitched even higher, his brow ridges following. "I fail to see your point."
"The southern quadrant has one strategic advantage," Sideswipe snarled, tired of dancing around the subject. They needed to get themselves mobilized.
"Enlighten me," Prowl said, sarcasm dripping from his vocalizer.
"The upper peninsula is a main trade route," Sideswipe said, sneering his words. "If the trade route becomes compromised, it can disrupt supply lines to the enemy."
"A diversionary route is accessible a just short distance away," Prowl said, giving Sideswipe a superior look that grated on the Lamborghini's circuits. "If we stretch our resources to further impede the enemy, then we are spreading ourselves too thin and leaving ourselves open for attack!"
"Sometimes you have to take chances," Sideswipe answered
"Not in war!" Prowl snarled, his optics flashing as his doorwings gave a sharp flick as if warding off a buzzing pest. "Such tactics are rudimentary and will lose us not only troops, but ground as well."
"But there is always a chance, and sometimes it's the chances you have to take," Sideswipe countered.
"Not when lives are at stake!" Prowl shouted, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.
"They know the enemy can hear them, right?" Bluestreak muttered, wincing when Prowl's voice rose in volume. His optics glanced around the room, noting that the fiasco was the center of attention. Bluestreak's doorwings continued to bob with apprehension.
Sunstreaker gave a slow nod, watching the two verbal combatants posturing like over-inflated mechs after a sumptuous femme.
"The southern region also allows us to attack the enemy from a weak flank," Sideswipe said, adopting a childish sneer when he noted Prowl's expression falter. "We reinforce our troops and attack their weak side and may take possession of the territory, thus enabling us to create a southern stronghold."
"There is a thirty percent chance of success," Prowl said, as if this statistic would thwart Sideswipe and his crazy scheme. "But if we maintain the northern quadrant, we have the upper hand and access to the best resources."
"And concentrating our troops in one area will only ensure we lose ground," Sideswipe growled, slamming his fist down to punctuate his words. "We've taken too many steps back! It's time to regain ground instead of losing it!"
"I am the one in charge of this Army!" Prowl snapped, standing nearly nose to nose with the usurper of his rule.
"You wouldn't be if Prime was here!" Sideswipe retorted. "He'd see reason and know when it was right to take a chance!"
"Prime would never commit such a blind, idiotic folly!" Prowl snapped back.
Sunstreaker watched the bantering from the opposite side of the game board, Bluestreak, his partner, staring in abject stupefaction.
"Think we should break them up?' Bluestreak asked.
"No," Sunstreaker said, looking bored with the situation.
A minute passed by with Sideswipe and Prowl still arguing over where to send their pieces and the best possible attack and counterattack strategy. Bluestreak looked over to Sunstreaker with a strained, forced happiness expression.
"Wheeljack made some magnesium sticks," he said. "You want to go get some?"
"Sure," Sunstreaker said leaving the arguing mechs to their opposite strategies.
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So, who saw that one coming?
Next two chapters will be my ideas and then I can get back to requests. I'm not quite done with the ones I've been working on and hopefully the extra couple of weeks will buy me some time to get them finished and edited.
