Ch. 64
Bulkhead groaned loudly and sat up, his optics onlining painfully. His helm hurt. So did his back struts. He had landed pretty hard on something...
The green mech gasped and rolled off a large pile of boxed energon, looking down through a hole in the floor at the Earth many thousands of feet below, "Whoa... That's not good," he quickly activated his COMM, glaring down at the distance between him and the ground, "Ratchet, this is Bulkhead. I need a ground bridge," when he heard nothing but static, he tried again, "Anybody in the base? I need a bridge-" the static got worse and he grumbled, turning it off, "Scrap. It must be jammed..."
He cautiously tiptoed to a door and went through, peeking around. It looked clear. The mech went to move when he heard a small troop of Vehicons coming around the hall. Bulkhead rushed to get back inside the energon store room, but the door closed and he was left out at the mercy of the 'Cons, should they find him.
The troop walked by, their pedfalls echoing, and their optical visors completely missed the large green mech pressing himself up against the frame of the door. When they had gone, Bulkhead let out a long sigh and began to tiptoe quietly down the hall. He turned his back when he thought he heard a noise and yelped when he bumped into something, jumping back and turning his blasters on a silver mech who, in surprise, had done the same.
Bulkhead panted softly, "Scream? How'd you get up here?" he transformed his blasters away.
Starscream scowled, his red optics seething, "Why is it that every time I give pertinent information, it is always ignored by an Autobot?!"
The green mech's optics shuttered, "W-what?"
Pointed claws poked him in the chest plate, "WHAT did I tell you this morning? WHAT did I warn you about?"
Bulkhead grumbled, "You told me to ignore a sudden and large energon signature while out on patrol..."
"And did you listen?! No, clearly not, because now I have to drag your sorry aft back to base! Do you think I WANTED to do this today?!"
The green mech frowned, "Fine, I get it, next time I'll listen..."
Starscream hissed, "You better. I'm getting so sick of this slag. You'd think I wasn't being appreciated, I swear..."
The seeker scuttled down the hall, Bulkhead keeping close, and the two turned smack into an intersection, Vehicons to the right, Dreadwing to the left.
The blue seeker glared, "Starscream. How did you manage to find yourself aboard this ship?"
Starscream's wings flattened and he raised his missiles up instinctively, "Ah, Dreadwing. Not exactly how I envisioned our first meeting would go..."
The Vehicons charged their blasters, but Dreadwing held up a servo to stop them, "Megatron has been obsessed with your capture and containment, as if you didn't already know. You play a dangerous game coming here," his optics narrowed, "And with an Autobot? How treacherous," he took out his own gun, aiming, "I may as well scrap you now for such an act. I'm sure our leader would understand."
Starscream glared and fired a missile at the blue seeker, ducking down low to allow Bulkhead to give him cover fire on the Vehicons. There weren't many, but their combined strength alongside Dreadwing made this far more difficult than it needed to be.
Dreadwing dodged the missile and fired back, forcing Starscream and Bulkhead to run down the hall in which they came.
The seeker snarled at the green mech as they ran, "NEXT time I tell you something-" he almost tripped dodging another round of blaster fire, "make sure you actually LISTEN!"
Bulkhead felt the heat of a plasma blast whir passed his helm and he yelped, frowning back, "Alright, I said I got the message! I'm sorry! But we'll be fine, right?! You know what's going to happen!"
Starscream frowned in confusion, "What? No, I'm not sure-"
A careful shot aimed at the silver mech's back sent him sprawling, his chassis skidding painfully down the hall in a shower of sparks and splash of energon. Bulkhead's optics widened and he roared, firing back in rapid succession. Dreadwing growled and dove for cover, a blast door coming down to separate the two when a plasma shot hit a vent line. The blue seeker stood and glared through a small window of glass. He watched as Bulkhead gathered up Starscream's leaking chassis and scrambled down the hall.
The green mech wasn't sure what to do. He hadn't had to deal with something like this. Bulkhead found a dark corner in a hallway and trembled when he saw how much energon the seeker had lost, lubricant welling in his optics.
"Primus, Scream..." he murmured, "I-I'm sorry. I'm sorry you had to come out here to save me! This shouldn't have happened!"
Starscream's optics didn't online. His chassis was quivering in waves of agony, his servos in tight fists. Bulkhead looked around to see if he could find anything to help ease the pain but could see nothing. And it didn't matter anyway.
The green mech gasped and felt his spark skip a beat when he saw the seeker's chassis stop trembling and his servos relax. He heard little ticks and machinations inside Starscream stop working, the silver mech dying before him.