Too Useful To Waste.
Summary: Both the Autobots and the Decepticons know how resourceful and inventive Sam Witwicky was. When Soundwave finds him dying after a battle, he wonders if he has a way to save Sam so his skills are not lost.
Warnings: Character death, minor blood and gore.
Rating: M for safety.
Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro and DreamWorks/Paramount. I make no claim to the contrary.
Translation: Please note, when using the Decepticons, I'll be using Cybertronian time measurements as defined by canon. They are, after all, giant, evil, robots bent on conquering the Universe. I highly doubt they'll use any time units but their own.
Joor = One Cybertronian hour, roughly equal to 83 earth minutes.
Chapter 4; Ravage
Ravage stood at attention as his creator stared at him, ready to receive his orders.
Soundwave first gave his instructions to the twins Laserbeak and Buzzsaw. They were fairly simple: just find the Autobot base and do some surveillance, but they were not to engage the enemy into battle. If they were caught, their orders were to retreat.
The orders weren't said in so many words. Ever efficient, Soundwave had a way of implying a great deal, though speaking very little.
It was only after they had left that Soundwave turned his attention to Ravage, who stood up straighter in response.
"Infiltrate American government. Find out what they know about our kind," ordered Soundwave and dismissed Ravage, who promptly jumped off the deskand headed for the door.
Ravage looked back at Soundwave as he exited the room and saw him pull out something from his chest compartment before the automatic doors closed behind him.
Curious, Ravage debated internally with himself for a moment, but in the end, he decided to continue with his mission. If it was something Soundwave wanted him to know, he would have shown it to him before he left.
He could always ask about it when he returned anyway.
*******
Ravage had assumed that his mission would be an easy one, and for the most part, it was. The fleshlings' security was rather pathetic.
Getting past the security cameras has been a simple task of creating a continuous feedback loop; he simply stuck to the shadows to avoid the gaze of the guards in the tower.
The tricky part had been the guards patrolling the grounds with their canines. It wasn't the fleshlings that had been the problem; it had been, but it was their pets that had caused him the most trouble so far.
He had almost been seen twice because of those pests, and both times because they had almost sniffed him out. If it weren't for the fact that he could emit low-frequency sounds that had sent them running with their tails between their legs, he would have most likely been seen.
And if he had been seen, he would have had to kill the fleshlings. He wasn't afraid of killing the fleshlings, but if he did kill them, that would leave bodies. If the bodies were discovered, the fleshlings would get suspicious, which would mean increased security and increased security could possibly mean Autobots.
That would be bad. Not to mention detrimental to his infiltration mission.
******
Once he had gotten past the guards, it was a simple matter of climbing into the cool vents of the building. He used his audios to follow the sounds of humming computer equipment to lead the dark coloured Casseticon to where the bases central computers were.
Inside the dimly lit room, Ravage kept to the shadows. Once again, it was necessary to avoid having to kill the fleshlings and draw attention to the fact that someone, or something, had broken in. Ravage had scoffed when he had learned what Barricade had had Frenzy do to learn the location of Lord Megatron.
Sure the little Casseticon was small and was fully capable of infiltration and data-gathering, like Ravage, but it was not his main function. Frenzy was built for sabotage, along with his twin.
If Ravage had been on that mission instead of Frenzy, the fleshlings' government would never have been aware of them until it would have been too late.
When Ravage finally found a suitable corner, well out of the way of the fleshlings, he settled down, off-lined all but the most essential systems to avoid any attention, and linked up with the computer to search for any reference to Autobots or Decepticons.
There was a surprising amount of information, not just on the Autobots, but on the Decepticons as well, and not just general information either. There was also specific information on individual Decepticons.
This would not do.
Most of it was out of date, and many of the Decepticons listed were actually long deactivated, but there was still a lot of accurate information. There were even special files for Starscream and Soundwave.
Ravage let out a low growl.
He was half-tempted to delete the information, or at the very least scramble everything, but he didn't - it would go against his orders. Besides, Ravage highly doubted that these files were the only ones the fleshlings had.
The Casseticon dutifully downloaded all the files. Soundwave had always been fond of the belief that knowledge was power, something Ravage completely agreed with.
Once the download was complete, Ravage disconnected himself from the computer'smainframe. While Frenzy may have thought himself intelligent by downloading a virus that disabled the planets communications, Ravage would have been foolish to do the same thing now.
Soundwave had deduced that one of the things the Autobots would do first upon allying with the fleshlings would be to rebuild their pathetic firewalls, indeed; Ravage had barely avoided figuratively running into one while downloading the files.
Content that he had gotten all that he could for the moment, Ravage headed back out the way he came in and headed back towards base. Now that he had completed his mission, he was intent on finding out what his creator was working on.
*****
"Commander, the bait has been taken."
*****
A joor later, Ravage entered the Decepticon base. The first thing he noticed was that it was empty of the mechs that his creator had brought with him from their ship, the Darksyde. The only mechs there were Soundwave, whom Ravage could sense was still in his quarters, and Barricade, who was currently playing guard-bot.
Ravage passed him without sparing him a single look. Most likely the others had been sent on various energy-gathering missions.
He sauntered over to the quarters he shared with Soundwave and his siblings and stood in front of the doors, waiting for them to open.
When they didn't, he growled in frustration and sent a message to Soundwave over the base frequencies, asking why he hadn't unlocked the door. It was at that moment that Ravage sensed something…different…with the Spark-bond that he held with his creator and siblings. The bond that allowed each other to know that they were alive, which direction, vaguely, they were in and in close contact allow them to know if they were damaged or not.
Ravaged focused on the bond, trying to find out what, exactly, was different. He immediately ruled out the death of one of his siblings, for it was nothing like that excruciating pain that was.
The Casseticon knew he had felt something similar before, but it had been such a long time ago. He searched his memory banks, trying to remember the last time he had felt it.
Then it clicked.
Soundwave was adding another Casseticon to their bond. He was creating another Casseticon.
******
Authors note;
Well, here is my fourth chapter, and lo and behold, it's a long one! I'd like to apologize for the shortness of the chapters, but I had no choice, I had to have at least one or two chapters to set everything up. Now, we are actually getting to some plot action!
I'd also like to take the chance to do some things I should have done in my earlier chapters, but completely forgot about; my thanks!
First and Foremost; LittleMewLugia, for letting me continue her fic and for helping with a few run-ons I was having trouble with.
Secondly; Kd Zeal, for his help with Soundwave, who would most likely, would have ended up talking like Blurr if it weren't for him!
And last, but far from least, my Beta for this fic; Dealing With It Now who has graciously accepted to beta for me, thank you!
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