The Destiny Ark 2: Line in the sand.
Chapter 2: High Frequency
Alternate Earth
Gakona,Alaska
The early morning dew glittered over the landscape of Alaska, since the fall of humanity much of the Earth's splendor returned to the earth. Areas of the planet that weren't touched by nuclear fallout or Human captivity were overtaken by trees, vegetation and animals. Deep in the forest a rabbit began her morning sabbatical to forage for food for her young, as the rabbit wiped its face it was startled by the opening of a ground bridge. It quickly ran away and hid from the large green swirling vortex.
From within the vortex, eight individual humans emerged from it. As the last of them filed from the bridge the vortex collapsed and disappeared. They moved silently through the woods, careful not to give themselves away from the drones that patrolled the area.
June breathed in slowly as she led point, this part of the mission always made her extra cautious. She lost count how many times she ran an operation like this. One thing that was apparent to everyone from a private to a General was that June was the best in missions like this. She studied every detail on the map, covered every entry point and exit stratagems. She maneuvered her squad through a wooded area that final overlooked a steep hill. June raised her fist up in the air, which was a silent order for her squad to stop and kneel. It meant that June found something.
June then low crawled to the edge of the tree line and pulled out her night vision binoculars. It was 4 am and the sun wasn't set to rise for another two hours. Two hours would be long enough to breach the facility and free the prisoners. June then raised her glove hand and made a "come here" gesture to her squad. Sierra then moved ahead of the squad and positioned herself next to June.
"Over there," June whispered "There's the facility."
Sierra took the binoculars from June and peered through them. From about 200 yards away she saw the large white building with tall fences that were adorned with razor sharp barb wire.
"You see that beacon?" June said as she pointed out the tall pole with a disc like object on top, the emitted a bright green glow.
"Those are beacons put in place to block any ground bridging into the complex." June said.
"How do you want to take it out?" Sierra asked
"We'll sneak to the fence on the east corner, from there we can take out the beacon and the platoon can bridge in directly into the facility. "June directed.
"What about this special side mission?" Sierra asked June.
"That facility used to be a research station for the Army, "June briefed Sierra " Before the war it was used to test earthquakes, SATCOM reports a spike in dark energon energy, While the company is taking out the bases guards we'll go into the facility to take any intel we can find."
Sierra nodded her approval of June's plans "So what's the first step" She asked
"I need a Miko…" June said with a half grin
Sierra roiled on her back and made a pyramid like gesture, It was the call for Miko. Within moments Miko, carrying her case of electronic gear came up and knelt behind June and Sierra.
"Here's what I need you to do Miko" June whispered " I need you to hack the facility terminals and shut down the defenses, Once you've done that take control of those turrets So you can provide us cover fire in case we get overwhelmed by the enemy, You got all that kid? "
Miko quietly nodded and she opened her back and pulled out a thick black laptop. She pulled down the Occulus goggles over her eyes and began to type furiously. June trusted the mute Miko, she learned computers and communications very easily. In a normal world Miko was your average kid. Loved Rock and always looking for the next adventure. Her world changed when the Decepticons took over. She and her parents were captured when they entered the United States after having left a ravaged Japan. It wasn't long before they were rounded up and sent to the Decepticon worker camps. Miko was there the day both her parents were killed by the Decepticons. She saw their bodies grounded up into paste. It was then that she lost her voice. A child who once sang popular Pop songs from her favorite Japanese pop idols was now reduced to a mute. When she was finally freed, she found herself shuffled into one of the base of the human resistance. June had taken to her very quickly and watched out for her whenever she could. For the first 3 months all she did was lay down or sit up in a corner hugging her knees. She would just sit and stare off into the distance. Many solders new that look, it was called the thousand yard stare. Only the most battled weary and traumatized people were reduced to that. It wasn't until June returned from the other dimension and gave her two UFO catcher dolls that she came out of her shell. She didn't understand where they came from, but for the first time since she arrived at the base June saw Miko smile. This was the first step that Miko took in waking up from her trauma.
Miko quickly executed the program to take control of the base defenses. June looked to see the bases lights switch off. This was the perfect time to act, as they have precisely 6 minutes to infiltrate the base.
"Miller, Bam Bam, and Rooster come with me, the rest of you get ready to provided support when I call for it! "June said as she readied her pulse rifle.
The four solders made their way down the hill and quietly moved through the tall grass towards the east fence. June was the first to reach the fence and looked with her night vision goggles to see if she could see any Energon signatures in the area. She signaled Sierra to come and breach the fence. Sierra came up next to her and put on two mechanized gloves. They were fingerless but in the palm sat three metal plates attached to a side switch. Sierra turned on the gloves as the plates started to grow hotter and hotter. The plates soon glowed bright red as sierra cut through the fence like a hot knife through butter. She kicked open the hole in the fence as the squad went through.
June led the squad through the grounds, they were armed and alert in case any Decepticon guards came along. They silently moved along the walls of the compound until they came to a corner. June peered around and saw only one Vehicon standing near the relay tower. June searched her utility belt and pulls out a baseball sized metallic orb. She turned it on with a quick finger stroke and set at time on the device. June liked using the pulse orbs, she found them very effective in distracting a Decepticon long enough to evade, escape or eliminated the enemy Decepticons. She stepped out of the shadows and threw the orb. It came alive as soon as it hit the air and set its sights on the target. The orb flew with a high pitched whistle and clamped itself on the target. The vehicon barely registered that something was wrong when the orb then released a powerful surge of energy burning out the Vehicons spark. It fell back dead as June signaled Rooster and Sierra to hatch the next phase of the plan, taking out the relay tower.
Sierra and Rooster raced to the relay towers, Rooster held a heavy machine gun and stood guard over Sierra while she attached the explosives to the towers base. Rooster stood silently as his eyes scanned the area within his sight. He was one time a petty crook from North Carolina before the war began. When the world was on the brink of destruction, he soon found himself with the Resistance movement. He learned early on the hardships of war as his platoon were wiped out in an ambush. He was the sole survivor of his group, Hence his nickname, Rooster. His platoon wore the name Rooster as they were first to fight and the last to leave. Since then he took his survivors guilt and chose to use it to cause the Decepticons as much misery as he could. He looked down at Sierra and watched her attach a Red Energon bomb to the relays base.
Sierra took the detonator from her coat pocket, and looked at Rooster as to silently say "I'm done, let's go!"
They ran back to General Darby, as Sierra showed June the detonator. June nodded her approval as Sierra pulled the pin and squeezed the grip. The explosion was loud and effective as the tower lurched to one side and then collapsed onto the ground.
"Foxtrot this is Dorothy seven niner- Tower is down and the door is open, Open the Ground Bridges and start your attack!
" June ordered as from within in the compound four ground bridges opened and human and Autobots troops poured out, They caught the Decepticons by surprise as they unleashed hell on the few Decepticons that arrived to face the intruders.
June opened up a holographic map of the compound from her wrist computer.
"Pay attention kiddos, "She said "While the ground forces are engaging the enemy at the north side of the base, we are going in to the rear bunker here. " She pointed out a bunker lit in red that sat near the back of the base.
"High command wants us to infiltrate that bunker and bring back any intel we can find. There is Dark Energon suspected to be in the base so be careful and watch the radiation levels on your Geiger tag!"
The Squad moved through the shadows and found the bunker unguarded, as they got to the steel double doors. Sierras turned on her heat gauntlets and carved open a hole in the door. The hole she made smoldered and glowed red.
"Watch your head. " Sierra warned as the squad filed into the bunker. She readied her rifle and guarded the rear flank. The hallway of the bunker sloped down on a steep incline. The deeper they got the more the drips of water rained down on them .Making the already cold environment, colder.
"Did they make this bunker under the plumbing?", Asked Bam Bam looking up at the blackened celling.
"That's because these tunnels reach far under the lake. " General Darby said as she looked at her holodisplay on her wrist computer. "There's an opening six clicks ahead, everyone stay frosty."
The darkness of the tunnel soon ended as it lead to a massive laboratory. It was cluttered even among the glistening white surfaces. Various computer parts were strewn about.
"Turn your coms on and fan out, you run into trouble you give a holler and we'll come running." June said as her squad broke into different directions to investigate the facility.
June and her squad then clicked on the single com unit that was nestled in their ear. It was a tiny earpiece that had a mic stick out that hung around the mouth.
Sierra veered to the left and made her way to the rear of the lab. Sierra always had a steely cold demeanor when it came to missions, but this mission deep within her she had a sense of dread. Echos of the past tried to burrow in her mind. Instead of dwelling on those thoughts she pushed them back and focused on the job at hand.
Rooster made his way to the right of the lab and came across several operating tables, They were painted a dark scarlet as they were obvious used for human experimentation.
"I found a set of operating tables, soiled" He reported.
"Find a terminal and dig into the archives. " June ordered. "Let's lift whatever we can from this place. "
"I don't get it " Bam Bam said " What the fuck is this place?"
Sierra reached the set of closed doors at the far end of the lab. She looked into the dark red light of each window and saw the remains of human experiments inside. She gasped as for a brief second she saw the faces of the children who died in Knock out's experiments. They were seared into her memory as she saw them nearly every single night in her dreams. She closed her eyes to focus and when she opened them she instead saw the corpses of the humans that occupied those cells.
"Sierra! Sierra! Dammit Captain do you copy!?" She heard June bark over the coms.
"Y-Yeah I'm here, I found bodies in these holding cells!" She reported. "It looks like they've been dead for a while now."
"Ok wrap it up and meet me on the lower level, I think I found something interesting. " June said.
Within moments June's squad met her in another anterior lab. It was massive, large enough to house Decepticons. June was near one of the large terminals, She tore open a paneling to expose the terminal fiber optics. She had hacked into the terminal and was downloading various files. She pulled one up on the massive screens.
"What did you find General?" Sierra asked.
June stopped the file on a copy of schematics. At first glance they were of a ship, but the ship was unlike any they had seen. What was most interesting was that it piggybacked onto it a cone shaped cannon.
"Is it a new weapon?" Rooster asked.
"I don't know yet, but that cone shaped thing. It's a huge audio transmitter. "June described." I think it has something to do with this base. Originally this based was housed to a project called H.A.A.R.P. Before the war it was a military base where it was rumored they were working on the study of earthquakes. Rumor had it the US government actually found a way to create earthquakes using High Frequencies. According to these files here, the work was abandoned, and apparently was picked back up by the Decepticons.
Sierra looked around and as her thoughts drifted she then noticed a tiny red dot appear on June's shouldered, it quickly moved to the back of her head. Sierra immediately acted as she grabbed June and threw her to the ground.
"Down!" Sierra screamed as Rooster and Bam Bam hit the deck. Then the room was lit with laser fire. .
"Get to a cover now!" June yelled as the team moved behind a wall.
The squad was separated when they moved to different cover positions. June and Sierra took cover behind the work table across from the terminal while Bam Bam and Rooster found cover near the generators.
The labs security defenses were activated as June screamed into the radio. "Miko! The lab's security defenses are back online! We're taking heavy fire, Shut them down now!"
"Hear ya loud and clear partnah!", Responded Miko's sound board.
Being a mute and also working in communications, Miko found a way around her disability by creating her own sound board. She loaded it with past tv and movie clips she scavenged from various computer files she collected. The phrases she did need that she couldn't find she programmed with a droll computer synthesized voice. Some of the troops found them funny, others, mainly high ups, didn't. June didn't really mind them; on occasion they would annoy her to no end, like now.
"Miko, when. IF we get back we're going to have a long talk about appropriate uses of the soundboard!" June snarled.
As soon as June said that the laser fire stopped. June's squad blinked as the room suddenly filled with quiet.
"Amazing what putting a foot up that girl's ass does!" Sierra commented.
"I'll say "June said as she stood up,
June and the others hadn't stood up more than a second when she saw the laser sights appear again on her squad, This time she was the one to throw Sierra to the ground .
"Get your ass down!" She shouted as the room erupted in laser fire again, and again they rolled back to their cover.
"Miko!, what the hell?!" June shouted over the comms.
"Houston, we have a problem!" The voice responded over the radio.
"What do you mean problem!?, Miko elaborate and do it in a language we understand!" June shouted as she and the squad returned fire to try and knock out the turrets firing on them.
A voice reached June over the comms, instead of it being another sound clip this voice was the droll robotic tone she used as she typed out what she wanted to say.
"General Darby, "The monotone robotic voice announced, "It appears when I attempt to override the system something else boots me out."
"Then shut down all systems!" June ordered "Go for the outlying power grids!"
"But ma'am if I collapse the grid, all power will be lost including the automatic doors and the life support systems in the lab you're in, and you're under 20,000 gallons of water." Miko typed in.
"We'll be just as dead if you don't shut off these turrets!" June yelled.
"Acknowladge General." Miko typed back.
Back at the staging site Miko looked out from her laptop and saw the battle unfold along the edge of the facilities perimeter. The attack was going well, Miko was busy making sure the base's outer defenses were offline and kept them from coming back online. She looked at the soldier guarding her; it was his job to keep her alive. She had a pistol she was required to carry, she never once used it as the recoil always caused her to drop the weapon. Much to General Darby's dismay, Miko chose to use her cleverness to help her win a fight. If it was a computer she could hack it, if it was an automated weapon she could render it useless, and if it was a fight she faced she always ran and hid.
She typed away going back and forth monitoring twelve different programs she had working at the same time. A difficult feat made simple thanks to a laptop that was part Cybertronian. One of the many gifts of technology the Autobots gladly shared with their new human friends. Then a red alert got Miko's attention as she gasped. What she saw filled her with fear and she needed to warn General Darby right away.
"Ma'am, you have company." She typed to her.
"We're way ahead of you Corporal Nakadai.."June responded in a serious stressed voice.
June stood back to back with her squad as they pointed guns in all directions; they looked deep into the shadows the telltale sign of a pair of red eyes, followed by an unmistakable metallic growl.
"Have you ever encountered Ravage before?" Sierra asked June.
"Never encountered any of Soundwave's lackeys "June said covering each point in the darkness, "But I image if you pump enough bastic bullets into him he'll drop like a bad habit. "
Then from out of the shadows the large robotic jaguar leapt to attack his prey. The four soldiers each stepped back as they unloaded their bullets into this metal casing. Ravage growled as the bullets sparked off his casing. As quickly as he appeared he disappeared back into the shadows.
"Stay together and back to back!" June ordered "He can see in total darkness as well, Rooster drop some flares!"
Rooster quickly lit up three flares and dropped them on the ground before them. It created a small pocket of light in which the squad stayed near.
"We have to think of something General!, We're not going to last long as long as Ravage holds the high ground!" Sierra said to June.
Behind them a terminal fell over causing a loud crash, by instinct they all turned and fired at the sound. June lowered her weapon and prepared to yell for them not to fall for that trick. Ravage leapt from a blind spot and tackled June to the ground. Before her troops had time to react Ravage clamped down on June's forearm. He quickly dragged her into the darkness.
"Ravage has the General!" Sierra screamed "Fan out nothing gets out of this room!"
The three soldiers moved in separate direction, the energy in the room turned to an air of desperation. They kept their ears open as they listened for anything in the dark.
"General!" Sierra called out "Where are you?"
From the distance they could hear a commotion that sounded like pots and pans falling. Then they heard June's pistol fire off a few rounds and then silence.
"Rooster!,Bam Bam! Follow me!" Sierra shouted.
They regrouped with her and the three followed the trail of destruction to a large open pool. They were large bodies of water usually placed for the cooling of various machine parts. June's team reached the pool of water in time to see June break out of the water gasping for air and determined Ravage rising up behind her. He latched on to her back grappled her , trying to pull her under.
June's team raised their rifles ready to fire; they paused when each of them realized that in trying to take down Ravage they could also take down the General.
"Ma'am do we take the shot?" Bam Bam asked "Ma'am?"
Sierra paused and blinked, she had faced tough battlefield decisions before. It was how she earned the rank of Lieutenant at the age of 15. On a recon mission Sierra was on a team that fell onto an ambush. The platoon commander was cut down in the first few seconds of the attack. Then the radioman and the medic were the next to fall. In any squad formation, death of the squad is all but guaranteed if these three positions fell. All that was left was Sierra and 10 frightened soldiers, the oldest being 19, the youngest was 12. Within the chaos, something in Sierra caused her to act. She ripped the patch from the Lieutenant's uniform, and told three of the squad member to lay down cover fire. She knew if the Decepticons were to corner them for any longer they would not last long. She ran out and quickly took the radio from the fallen radioman. She screamed for air support, with the quick thinking from earlier she relayed the lieutenant's authorization code. Within minutes the valley was carpet bombed and the Decepticons were destroyed. Sierra had saved her team from certain death; she was called before General Darby to answer for her actions. June gave her a warm smile and thanked her for her quick thinking and also told her to hold on to the lieutenant's patch as she earned a battlefield promotion.
Now Sierra was facing an even tougher choice, a choice that had to be made quickly. June then made eye contact with Sierra and in that instant Sierra knew what she had to do. Sierra saw June slap a pulse orb to Ravage. The orb overloaded and exploded releasing a powerful pulse of energy. Ravage growled as June escaped his grasp.
"Fire!" Sierra shouted as they unloaded their rifles at Ravage. The hail of bullets eventually found the sensitive parts of ravage's frame. With the energy of the pulse orb, he slump over his spark burned out.
Sierra ran into the shallow pool waters, June where was slumped over face down in the waters. Sierra reached her and pulled her face out of the water.
"General!, General!" Sierra yelled, "June!" She finally brought down her fist on June's chest.
June opened her eyes and gasped and coughed for air. Her throat forcefully expulsed the excess water in her lungs, Sierra breathed a sigh of relief to hear June breathing again.
June opened her eyes and saw she was still alive.
"That wasn't ….fun" June croaked." Rooster, Remove Ravage's head, The Bots can rake it for intel. "
When they reached topside, General Darby received the full reports on the base raid. 240 civilians were rescued where 5 were killed in the attempt. The Decepticons left only drones behind to guard the facility, this lead June to question why Ravage stayed behind. He was a saboteur, not a scientist.
After two weeks of tearing down the base and processing the refugees found. June and her company returned to their base in Baja, while the human refugees they freed were relocated to the Human settlements in Colorado. She was checked out by a doctor and returned to her office. She hadn't been back more than an hour when she received a call from High Command. June was sipping coffee when she heard the tone telling her she had a video call. She clicked on the accept button and on the video screen appeared the face of Ultra Magnus.
"General Darby, Perceptor has analyzed the data you collected and we need to fill you on something, Ground Bridge to Oregon within the hour. " He ordered
"It must be serious if you can't tell me over the call" She commented.
"We need your console on something, it will be easier to explain when you're in person. " Magnus said as he ended the call.
June had barely ground bridged to the Oregon command when something lit up the night sky. June was thrown off guard by what appeared to be an enormous bolt of light that was fired from space. As soon as it struck the ground it let out a resounding boom, following the boom the entire ground around June began to shake violently and then subsided quickly.
June ran to the warehouse that the Autobots set up command in, she ran in to see humans and Aubots trying to stabilize their instruments and hear above frantic reports from all over the world.
General Bishop saw June and called her over "June, thank God you're here!, I thought we would have more time to brief you but time has now been cut short!"
"General what happened!?, What was the beam of light? Did it cause that earthquake?" June asked over the chatter.
"Apparently that quake was felt all over the world!, and we fear it has something to do with what you found in Alaska!" Leland said as he ushered her to the war room where the joint human/Autobot alliance were about ready to start a meeting.
June took a seat with others, as Rodimus began his brief "At a little past 9 p.m we recorded a blast of Archeron Energy. We believe it was a part of a top secret project by the Decepticons that was conceived at the H.A.A.R.P base in Alaska. For more on the Decepticon base and it's severity. I turn things over to our Chief Scientist Perceptor."
Perceptor took the floor and began "As you see from the schematics taken by General Darby, the Decepticons forged a weapon that fired pure Archeron energy. Archeron energy is harnessed when the vibrations from an Arc reactor are collected and concentrated into a beam of pure energy. We believe the Decepticons have perfected this weapon. We sent units into orbit to take out the weapon before it could fire, unfortunately the weapon fired off a beam before it was destroyed. The beam struck the central area of the United States. As the beam hit the earth it went past the earth's crust straight to the earth's core. We predict it will hit the core within the hour, When that happens it will cause the Earth's core to stop spinning if the core stops spinning it will cease to control the magnetic field that surrounds the Earth. When that happens there will be nothing to stop the sun's radiation from rising the temperature on the entire surface of the planet, when that happens the Earth will have a little less than a month before all life on the planet is killed."
A grim hush fell over the room as the gravity of Perceptors words resonated in everyone. June felt like she was just punched in the stomach. According to Perceptor the damage had already been done.
Rodimus finally spoke again "We feel this is an endgame strategy by Galvatron, If he can't have the Earth, he has decided that no one will."
"So is there anything we can do?" Admiral Furman asked.
"There is one thing we can do, "Perceptor said "On Cybertron I submitted designs for a space craft that used an Archeron arc reactor for its engine. We believe you have heard of it. Do you remember the Destiny Ark?"
That created a hushed reaction from all the Humans in the room, especially June. As she was the one who led the mission to retrieve it.
"The energy from the arc reactor of the Destiny Ark will be enough to get the Earth's core spinning again. The Decepticons stole the Destiny Ark during the last battle for Cybertron. Through various reports I've read we know it was brought to Earth." Rodimus said.
June stood up" I led the mission to retrieve the ark, but I don't see how we can get it, it's in another dimension!"
"There is no time to build another ark, even if we rebuilt the ark it would be another six months before I could finish the calibrations of the Arc Reactor. "Preceptor said. "What I can do is wire together a rushed copy of the arc reactor, it would not have enough energy to restart the earth's core, but it would be enough energy to send you across the dimension to retrieve the Destiny Ark. "
"I volunteer then. " June said "No one knows that world better than me, I know who to ask to learn the location of it. Let me choose a team and we'll get it back. "
June's words caused the council to grow quiet, the silence wasn't broke until General Bishop spoke up "I endorse this plan, If anyone can do the job it's June. When she arrived back she brought back a way to contact the Autobots. I know she is more than qualified for the mission."
"I concur" Rodimus said
"Agreed" Followed up Admiral Furman. One by one the council gave their ok for June to head up the mission.
"Go and choose your team General Darby, you have one day to select a team and get them ready. "General Bishop said "When you're ready report back to us.
"Wherever you decide to open the dimensional bridge is where you will appear in that world." Perceptor said. "I'll start on calculations to get you to the right world."
June took the ground bridge back to her base. She looked at the setting sun and realized she needed to get to work to put together a team.
NEXT TIME: With the battle lines drawn General Darby begins a last ditch plans to retrieve the Destiny Ark, If she fails it will be the end of Earth as she knows it. June and her team will encounter unknown challenges and be faced with uncomfortable truths. June will see firsthand what has happened since her last visit and the squad from the resistance will see first-hand the challenges visiting an Alternate Universe brings.