Chapter Eight – Project N Exposed!
The dust stirs outside a guarded fence in the middle of a sun-drenched valley; a lone wind blows in the background giving it the feel of total emptiness of life. The uniformed guards pacing back and forth with their weapons cross past the large sign that hangs on the electrified, barbed wire top fence.
NO UNAUTHORIZED PERSONEL ALLOWED - HAVE YOUR IDENTITY CARDS READY AND DO NOT PASS THE YELLOW LINE
The smooth black pavement to the gate had a yellow strip going across it, nearly five feet away from the fence entrance, it is the only allowed distance one can approach, any closer then that and the guards will instantly shoot without a second thought. This is a very top-secret base, full of hidden sensors and cameras that monitor the road and gate at all times. A small-fortified booth is the only thing sitting in-between this massive barrier, a guard post that houses the only switch to open and close the fence gate.
Both guards carry the standard military issue machine gun, fairly new in design and loaded with Teflon bullets as ammo. The casual nature of their walk and their weapons slung behind their backs suggest that it's a dull posting for likes of them, nobody ever comes up this road, the fresh unspoiled look of it is a dead giveaway and the markings on it look as if it had just been painted there.
"Man, it's hot out here." The one guard says as he stops to wipe his brow.
The other one hears him and turns back towards him.
"Yeah…I think it would be better to be in the arctic."
"HELL NO!" The sweating man shouts. "Those guys up there must be freezing their asses off."
"Well at least they're not dying of heat stroke like us." The friend replies. "Besides, I'll bet it's just as boring up there as it is down here."
"Yeah, ain't that the truth. 100 above or 100 below…either way the crappy assignments we all tend to get. Hope this project is worth all this…I haven't seen my girlfriend for six months! I just know she's cheatin' on me with some other fella."
The other guard chuckles and pats him on the back. "That's what ya get for hooking up with a woman like that. Cause that is one hot lookin' babe…yes sir."
"What do you mean…hot? You haven't been seeing her? Have ya?" The man asks in a very curious manner.
"Uhm…" The friend says as he squirms and adjusts his collar. "Uh…Well…I mean that is…."
Suddenly a sonic boom is heard on the ground in the very distance, the two men quickly notice it and look down the long stretch of road.
"What the hell was that?"
"Maybe it's Dave on patrol…he's supposed to be reporting in soon."
The guard swings his weapon around and holds it in his hands.
"Dave? Dave is on the other side of the fence moron!"
The other guard takes his machinegun in hand and takes off the safety switch.
"Right, right…sorry. Could be just a jet…something on base…but…out here? And on the road?"
The sweating man takes another rub at his forehead and peers his eyes as he tries to make out the shapes now heading up the road. The sound of the engines gunning at full speed starts to get closer and closer. Both men turn to glance at one another and prepare to fire at the on coming visitors.
"It's them…I know it is…" The one guard says as he gets his finger ready to pull the trigger.
"Who?" The other one questions as he two takes aim.
"The ones we're supposed to look out for. The ones trying to find this place dummy…the Autobots!"
"Well…don't worry. They'll have to stop…" The man says back with a calm voice. "With two humans in the way…they'll have to break or risk hurting us."
The other guard suddenly looks over at him. "Uh…is this really wise?"
"Trust me" The friend smiles. "They wouldn't dare run over us."
As the men turn back to poise their guns, the sudden look in their eyes as a loud horn sounds off at them, gives them both a quick face of fear as they rapidly begin shooting their weapons.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Inside the Area 51 Base, soldiers and vehicles move about the various buildings and hangers scattered about the large open area. Circular in form, the whole area seems more like an enclosed community; mountains cradle it all around and give it a very shielded look. The whole ground was paved and was nearly as jet black as the one road leading out beyond it. But after many years of use and vehicles driving all over it, the faded painted numbers and arrows had faded and cracked. This base was old, and yet it seemed like it was new in appearance. In the very center was the covered hole that housed the weapon that was used against the Decepticon ship, seams in the ground show where the doors would retract but those walking over it simply considered that door part of the overall paved ground of the base.
"Commander West! Commander West!!" A female voice cried out over the noise filled base.
The commander was seen crossing over the large covered weapon area and turned his head around at the approaching red headed female soldier trying to flag him down. Two other well groomed and suited men, one African American and the other Caucasian, stopped in their conversation with him as the woman finally reached Archeville's Second in command and breathed heavily as she tired to catch her breath from running.
"Sir!" She said as she took long gasps of air. "We've got a big problem!"
"What? What is it Lieutenant?"
"The base…its…its been penetrated!"
"WHAT?!" The man screams in anger.
Now the blaring alarm sounds out over the entire base, the booming siren sends the troops scrambling about as they automatically get their gear ready for whatever is heading for them. All of them know what that siren means, their defenses have been breached and intruders are on their way in.
"The Autobots!" West blurts out in realization. "Get the men ready and power up the main weapon!"
The three men scurry to a near by building as the woman dashes back to her own posting as she does as she's instructed by him. The armored troops load their guns and vehicles with everything they can and send up the modified helicopters that look updated with their "special technology" that they used during the last Autobot/Decepticon conflict. The choppers fly overhead of the troops and quickly disappear down the narrow road that goes in only one direction. The soldiers fortify their positions all around the base and point their guns nervously at the long paved road. As they remain silent, they can hear the helicopters attacking whatever it is at the end of the road, lasers fire, missiles explode and a billow of smoke now begins to rise in the mountainous distance. West and the others head down into the deeper regions of the base, and now enter the secret underground dwellings where they can watch the entire events on monitors and multiple camera angles.
"What's happening out there?" West demands of one of the soldiers listening to the communications band. "Did they eliminate the intruders?"
"Negative sir." The middle aged, Caucasian man says as he lowers his headphones in shock. "The air support just bit the dust."
"Get the weapon online fast!" The commander now screams.
Outside the troops can hear the sound of screeching tires and engines blaring at full throttle, one of the base's armored vehicles quickly zooms ahead and begins firing it's huge rocket strapped on top. The hurling weapon reaches the end of the road and strikes down at the faint speeding targets that almost become visible for a second, the explosion sends a fiery ball of flame up and the men all cheer at the sight of it's deadly attack. The smoke expanded out beyond and soon engulfed the entire base. The outside cameras couldn't see past the dark smog that now clouded over the place and Commander West chewed at his thumb nervously as he waited to see the results when the smoke lifted.
"Well…anything?" He demanded to know of the staff all racing about trying to listen to the reports from the troops.
"Nothing yet sir…" The communications officer replied. "Wait…frontlines are saying something…"
"Put it on speakers."
The officer flicked on the overhead speakers in the room and West began to hear sounds of engines revving up again. It seem strange to him that the Autobots would act this way, he never thought it possible they would blindly just march in and shoot down his helicopter patrols, especially with all those humans aboard them. But he never did fully trust these giant Cybertronian robots that wanted to befriend their kind, every creature had an agenda in his mind, no matter if they come as friend or foe. The sound of the engines convinced him the Autobots were unharmed and before he could give instructions to the troops, the visitors zoomed into the base and began smashing anyone and everything in their way.
The dark cloud of smoke continued to make things difficult to see, the troops opened fire in every direction the noise was coming from and ended up getting run down by the attackers that moved too fast for anyone to stop. The ammo and missiles where flying about the chaos going on within the base, troops were dying as they would accidentally hit one another in all the confusion. West pounded his fists on the monitor as he watched his whole special military go up in flames. The man quickly rushed out of the underground lair and surfaced to the top to get a first hand look at the Autobots destroying everything Archeville had built.
"Sir!" A soldier screamed as he ran up to the Commander. "The Autobots are everywhere! They're…killing us!!"
"This is insane!" West says grabbing him. "Autobots don't kill humans! What the hell is going on?"
Suddenly one of the vehicles pounds through the building beside them and stops just a few feet away. West and the soldier cough from the dust and debris flying past but soon look up to see the pale green vehicle sitting there. Looking at intensely, West's eyes give a realization and informs the soldier of his error.
"My God! That's not an Autobot…it's…it's…it's a Decepticon!!"
The construction vehicle quickly transforms as the men watch in horror, and snickers at the two of them cower in fear.
"Humans!" Scrapper yells. "No one tries to kill the Decepticons and lives! Prepare for your Deaths!!"
The other Constructicons rush up beside him and also transform.
"I say we keep running them down!" Bonecrusher demands.
"No! Stomp on them…crush them all!!" Scavenger yells as he shakes his fist.
"Never mind the dramatics…" Hook groans. "Just shoot the little bugs with your weapons."
"That's even better!" Mixmaster laughs.
"Yes…" Long Haul nods in agreement. "Why waist perfectly good fuel when we can obliterate them with our superior weapons!"
West runs up to the six evil transformers and screams up at them.
"You…you can't be alive? Your ship crashed into the ocean…It's impossible!!"
"Believe it human. The Decepticons are back…" Scavenger says looking down at him. "And we're ticked off at all of you."
West steps back with a horrified gaze as he and the other soldier now run for their lives as the Constructicons whip out their black weapons and begin firing away at them. All of them laugh as they watch the humans dart their fire and flee for their own lives.
"And you said this wouldn't be any fun Hook." Scavenger says looking back at him.
The fellow Constructicon smirked and continued firing at the scared human soldiers.
"Consider this a retraction of my previous statement."
The six Decepticons continued to destroy every building and every vehicle surrounding them, the base and at those trying to stop them by any means necessary. Fire and smoke now danced across this once secret operation as the deadly six destroyed it from existence.
•••••••••••••••••••••••
Back in the Arctic, more guards stand around a massive snow covered metallic object that juts out of the ground like a rock on an incline. The snow and ice make it hard to make out what it is, but the grey and patchy look of it makes it look alien in origin, a small door that looks cut into the side of it is the only thing that looks man made. As the large group of parka wearing soldiers stand around with their weapons beside them, the ground begins to shake and the cracking of the ice around them can be heard. The men all call one another to action and ready themselves as they gaze around to see what's causing it. Once again, a lone figure runs out of the snowy mists and shouts at them all.
"Shoot! Shoot I say! Fire at will!!" Archeville screams as he reveals himself to them.
The men all pause as they wonder how the hell he got there, but that was a short-lived pause as they soon saw the Decepticons marching in slowly. The troops quickly obeyed their project leader and used their weapons that looked far more advanced then the ones the Doctor encountered earlier. These weapons fired pulse shots of green energy that dented the plating on most of the Decepticons.
"Ouch!" Starscream flinched. "Why you little fleshlings! How dare you hurt me!"
Starscream fired his arm cannons at the humans and vaporized the few that managed to wound him slightly. The other Decepticons quickly did the same thing as they each took out a group of soldiers trying to take them all on. The blood curling sound of their screams and weapons firing made the Doctor cover his face with his hands. Lowering them down slowly from his face, he looked at his new metal claw-like hand and stared at it with mad gaze. He noticed how much it didn't freeze or feel cold to the rest of his body, a quiet little giggle now came out of him as he kept opening and closing his hand with the sound of the gears and motors making it move.
"That was a stupid mistake Doctor." Megatron's voice boomed out above him.
Archeville stopped his giggling and glared up at the massive Decepticon leader.
"I know…but it was worth a try at the very least."
"It wasn't even that…human." Megatron chuckled. "It was merely stupid for you and your men to think you could stop us at all."
Soundwave walked up to the leader and saluted him as he gladly gave his report to him.
"Human resistance has been exterminated."
"Excellent." Megatron smiled. "Once the Constructicons report the same of Archeville's base…we'll have nothing further to hinder our plans."
The human doctor heard the leader and ran over pounding on the silver robot's leg.
"Nooo! I…I gave you no location of that place! Spare it! My life's work is there! I beg of you Megatron…take Project N…but don't destroy all that I have!"
Megatron lightly pushed the doctor away from his person and scowled at him.
"You have nothing!" He growled. "I now command you flesh bag! Everything you own or ever will have belongs to me. You attacked us from that base of yours…Soundwave made sure of tracking it's location the day you sent us to the bottom of the ocean. It was a death sentence you gave your men…you're responsible for their doom…consider it as punishment for getting in my way!"
"No…nooooo!" Archeville whimpered as he shivered in the snow.
Megatron stared at the large metal object ahead of him and smirked as he now walked up and touched it's metal surface.
"Yes Doctor…Project N and all you've discovered…is now mine!"
Megatron laughed in a great booming evil tone that seemed to carry across the icy terrain and even into the howling, snow filled wind.