The sun was just coming over the horizon to flood the expansive desert as Hound and Ironhide headed home towards Autobot headquarters. Due to Teletran 1 being upgraded the Autobots had been scheduled onto more extensive patrols and no one was enjoying it. Further more the lack of Decepticon activity and monotonous work of taking the same routes each day on patrol was putting everyone on edge.
"Did you find any sign of the Decepticons or their space bridge while you were out on patrol?" Optimus Prime queried looking preoccupied.
"No sir, looks like they've decided to pack up and wimp their way back to Cybertron," Ironhide answered, peering around the room with a hint of a scowl entering his voice. "What is Wheeljack trying to do now? I thought it was only going to be repairs."
"I'm installing one of my latest inventions. It enhances Teletran's capability of processing data at high speeds," Wheeljack sniped from where he lay, peering into Teletran 1's complex wiring.
Teletran's metal sheeting lay strewn about the floor, covering almost every square inch. The room, usually tidy if not pristine was now a total disaster zone. The lack of spare floor space meant that none of the Autobots could possibly enter the room let alone move about in it. Wheeljack's tools laid about him in no particular order and once used were always placed somewhere else. The result of his own lack of concentration, was a full fledged panic attack the next time he needed that specific tool and no other.
"Here we go, fully online once more and computing ten times faster," Wheeljack announced with satisfaction as he turned from Teletran 1 after installing the new device. "Optimus? We've received a distress signal while Teletran was offline. The Decepticon's were raiding an airbase somewhere in California. The call cut out before they sent through their coordinates," Wheeljack reported.
"Okay, looks like the Decepticons haven't pack up and gone to Cybertron after all. Can you pinpoint the location of the signal?" Optimus asked while shooting Ironhide an amused look.
"Sure thing, my new invention enables that. It looks like the signal was coming from Susanville commercial/defence airport."
"Okay, Autobots transform and roll out."
Hours later as the Autobots stood and surveyed the base which was still a mess. To every one's eyes and optic sensors, the Susanville Defence Base was a scene of destruction and disarray. Clean up crews, despite having worked since the Decepticons had left were barely starting to make a difference to the ravaged base. The medical facilities were filled to capacity, mainly with burn and head injuries. The base commander was trying to find out who was responsible for the possible leak in information in between long bouts of ranting about nothing to do with the situation whatsoever.
The Base Commander and other officers, despite knowing who the Autobots were, looked at them with severe distrust and accusation, not daring to approach the large mechanisms. The Autobot group consisted of Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Hound, Jazz and Perceptor. The sun glanced off their metallic paint as they started to discuss the situation at hand.
"What did the Decepticons do this time?" queried Ironhide, sounding bored because it looked like the only thing they were going to do was clean up. One of the ranting officers decided that this was his cue to fill them in.
"Those titanium fools took our AIM Sidewinder missiles, practically blew the base to pieces and kidnapped some girl, although God knows how she got onto the base," ranted the officer, without taking a breath between the two rants. "There is no way this base will be operational for the next two months, and maybe not even then! All of our aircraft that were out on an exercise have been diverted and our operations will have to be aborted!"
"They kidnapped a girl?" questioned Optimus, shocked that the officer could only think about his operations and missiles when a civilian life was at risk.
"Well yeah, and they took our AIM Sidewinder missiles!"
"Hey, Optimus. We came as soon as we got your call," said Spike as he hopped out of a bright yellow punch buggy. Bumblebee transformed as soon as Spike got clear.
"Woah, look at this place, it's a mess," exclaimed Bumblebee.
"Yes it's a mess but it's not our top priority at the moment. The Decepticons have taken the base's AIM Sidewinder missiles and kidnapped a young girl. As an innocent life is at risk! We will attempt to locate the girl and formulate a plan to retrieve her," Optimus Prime informed Bumblebee.
"They took a girl? Why would they do that? It's not their usual way," said Spike, taking another cursory glance around the base.
"Well they have, and furthermore all the base commander cares about is his missiles," snapped Jazz.
"The Decepticons don't think in lines of usual and unusual although they must have really wanted the missiles in order to take the girl. They know we wouldn't let them get away with that," Ironhide argued. "Although the way the officer is going on about the missiles you would think it's the end of the world, not just the abortion of an Air Force Operation," he spat in disgust, looking like he wanted to blow something up himself.
"Something needs to be done about the girl and the air base so we will split up from here. Jazz, Ironhide, Bumblebee and Spike will stay here to assist the cleanup crews. Spike if you could, get the base commander and try to identify which Decepticons it was. Jazz contact Wheeljack and tell him to send Mirage to spy on the Decepticons, preferably at their base. Hound, you and Perceptor look for any trace of the girl in this area. I will stay here to help with the cleanup and talk to the defence personnel," decided Optimus.
Ironhide grumbled but without saying anything the group split up to do their assigned tasks.