Hardline Online
01
ISDH
101
[Okay boys, Bulkhead, you take the wrecker wannabe. I will handle the good doctor, as Bee handles the goons. Any objections… Thought not, split up and remove your target, but keep an eye out for each other!] Arcee broke formation, caught a rock to go air-borne. As She reached her apex, she engaged her T-cog and dropped on the red racer, fencing blades leading her attack.
Bee exploded into the group of six trooper drones, his twin-blasters eviscerating the mass produced troopers, As Bulkhead slammed into the Decpicon's Answer to the Wreckers. Only the Destructicons did more damage, and they were just short of a Prime or Alpha frame.
Overhead a Black and Yellow Cassetticon avian, by the callsign Buzzsaw, circled overhead. Where Lazorbeak was infiltration and data retrieval… Buzzsaw was more saboteur / demolitions. When he saw that the Auto-bots' squishies had gotten to the new meche, his flight path took an attack vector. His talons dropped, as the foot-claw on both feet morphed into a rotary blade with an edge that could cut stone, steel, or even cybertrunium. He made his pass at the Black Meche… only to be slammed into the grassy floor.
101
Now that I was hearing the noises for what they were, I was able to link into the Autobots' com lines.
Com-lines means com-hubs… which means…
Hardline Online!
Gate Drive Engaged!
Gate Vortex - Override!
Interlock Connection: RED!
Target… Ariel Con!
The flying bomb-bot was caught from the side, sucked through a red vortex… and slammed into the ground over one hundred standard stride units away.
No sooner than the red vortex faded, my system reset, and my core blared again;
Hardline Reset!
Hardline Online!
Gate Drive Engaged!
Gate Vortex Confirmed!
Interlock Connection: Green!
Vortex is stable!
Transit is a GO!"
Green vortexes swallowed the green brawler, the Yellow striker, and the blue Infiltrator, before one swallowed the Black Mech, holding the children.
101
Across the Auto-bot Com lines, the static cleared just in time for the three fighters of Team Prime to notice something was off…
Gate Vortex Confirmed!
Interlock Connection: Green!
Vortex is stable!
Transit is a GO!"
"Miko!" the three ton thug spun for his little friend...
"Jack!" Arcee spin kicked the Doctor in his grill, as she turned to rush to her human's aid…
Just as a green vortex swallowed each of them whole.
They were set gently on the Ferris-carbonate flooring of their Lair.
Transit complete.
Vortex collapse, in 3...2...1…
Interlock connection: Yellow
Gate Vortex dissolved.
Gate Drive Disengaged
Hardline Offline!
The new Mech, hissed, as he slowly slumped into a kneeling position, setting the children on the floor.
"By Cybertronian Legal Charter, I demand Sanctuary and to speak to your Commanding Officer. I am Hardline. Last of the Bridge-Masters." Just as my power cells bottomed out. It will take five cycles for me to regain enough charge to communicate with anyone. Their commander can infuse me if he wants to talk to me sooner…
101
Breakdown entered onto the bridge carrying the slagged form of Buzzsaw. Knockout was dragging the bits and pieces of the troopers into the belly of the beast. "Soundwave. That Mech we were set after was not as defenseless as we were led to believe. I did not get a look at his icon… but I know this… He is no Auto-bot.
The big blue boxy Bot stomped over to pick up his bent bird-bot. "Buzzsaw." Soundwave held the jagged pile of scrap and poked it with a digit. Buzzsaw shifted, and a port opened behind the head. A thin (mirco by Con standards) cord exited the digit tip and plugged into the socket. The rectangle on the Blue-Bot's chest flickered, before it began to replay Buzzsaw's last mission.
An aerial showing of the Autobots racing passed a black Meche that looked like Prime, and engaged Megatron's troops. The bird-bot locked onto the Meche, scanning as it's weapons listed that it was deploying its 'talons'. It had closed into audio range and picked up;
Hardline Online!
Gate Drive Engaged!
Gate Vortex - Override!
Interlock Connection: RED!
Target… Ariel Con!
The flying bomb-bot was caught from the side, sucked through a red vortex… and slammed into the ground at the limit of its audio and visual range on the other side of the Meche. It's continued to record, diverting power from repairs.
Hardline Reset!
Hardline Online!
Gate Drive Engaged!
Gate Vortex Confirmed!
Interlock Connection: Green!
Vortex is stable!
Transit is a GO!"
The Meche was swallowed by what was easily identified as a Ground-Bridge.
The feed went black.
"Status engaged." The Blue Con poked the bird again, "Repairs will be needed."
Megatron sneered, "That looked like a…"
"Bridge-Master." Knock Out hissed, "No Weapons, Power-core twice that of a Prime. Most were Cowards."
"Not Cowards." Megatron sheathed, always angry, even when pleased. "They had no place on the Battlefield. They could move entire Legions across the Stars. At the time fighting broke out on Cybertron, there were only Five. Three fled to the Stars, using an unstable Space-Bridge to avoid capture. One opened a Ground-Bridge in the middle of Her spark chamber. Took out the prison complex she was being held in." His purple burning eyes flared, "The Last Vanished into the Hall of Records."
"You sound pleased with this, Lord Megatron." Knockout made sure to stay out of the Masters firing arc.
"If I could get a hold of It, I could Command the Stars. But they must be handled carefully." The Lord and Master of the Decepicons sneered. "For now It has joined their side. Shortly, it will need to move on. They do not have the Energon needed to keep It with them."
101
Energon levels: 5%
Cognitive Systems: Active
Mobility: Nonactive.
Activating to Debrief and Sync with Command…
The Large Black Mech awoke, but his frame remained powered down.
"Okay Ratchet!" The small life form standing on his chest, "Power to his Head, but I have his body in a Stasis lock. You and Optimus should be able to talk to him now!"
"What is with the …" the Mech ground out.
"Squishies." Ratch snorted. "They are Called Humans. They are the dominant life form on this rock."
"They are Helpful, if soft skinned." the Prime stepped into his view. "How did a Bridge-Master end up here?"
"I finally fell low enough that hiding in the bowels of the Archives was no longer a viable option. I headed to a Space Bridge Gate, and searched for the first active address out there. Found the One over this rock, but before I could further, I was attacked and thrown through the event-horizon. My Landing was a blessing in that I received no real damage. When your squad charged me, I was worried, until they dropped their…Squishies, and charged off to face the 'Cons'. The Little guy uploaded language files, and the com-codes that allowed me to tap your ground bridge. I then used what I could to defend myself and your squad, and returned here." His optics locked onto Optimus, "I never thought I would cross paths with a Prime."
"Bulkhead and Bee are out raiding a small mine down in Mexico, to get enough Energon for him." the Orange and White bot sneered. "This Bot takes three times the Energon that You do, Optimus. What Makes him worthy of that Sacrifice?"
"Besides the Fact that he can link the Space Bridge above to your Ground Bridge, to open a Bridge to any Bridge out there?" Optimus frowned. "If you Had not Blown up the Gate…" His Optics locked on the Mech on the slab. "How Did you exit the Gate if it was destroyed?"
"Destroyed?" The Bridge Master Frowned, "The Gate is still functional. It had a reversal flow issue a few cycles back, that caused a Matrix Cascade Event, but the auto-repair systems had it at 83% when I passed through. Anything above 75% can receive an incoming Bridge, but you need an 88% Gate to hold an outgoing Matrix. By my calculations, we need forty cycles to have a green connection, sixty for 99%... I fear that Gate will never reach 100% again."
A sharp whistle and a series of beeping caused the small life form to jump to the floor, and trot over to the far wall. He punched something into a device with a glowing screen, and the Ground Bridge cycled open.
A dark green Vehicle roared in with a squishy yelling from the Window, its cargo hold stacked high with cubes of blue cut crystal. A yellow and black bot exited the vortex firing his blasters into the light, as the small person powered down the Bridge.
"Hurry up and unload me!" the green brute demanded "The Crates cause me to itch!"
Optimus stared down at the Mech. "You can Bridge us off world?"
The Mech 'blinked' at the Prime. "In Forty Cycles… given the correct coordinates. If I have to search for active Gates… and the Gate I used to exitus will not support a matrix connection. The Gate was slagged… right through the Auto-repair Assembly." He frowned. "I can use it to locate Cybertron, to seek out an alternate Gate but with the Energon Desiccation…"
The Femme sauntered forward. "How about Velocitron? Racing tracks as far as the optics can see…"
The Mech grunted. "I will search… in forty cycles."
tbc