Kickback landed lightly in the next field but the weight of his frame still crushed the remnants of the harvested wheat beneath him. A flurry of wings chattered around him as grasshoppers fled his ominous shadow. He inched himself forward on his appendages, looking over the length of the field for a patch missed by the harvester. The bristly ends of the pale wheat shafts brushed harmlessly against the underside of the Insecticon.
Two clones of the giant Decepticon grasshopper set down on either side, waiting for their host to lead the way to the next food source. A moment later, the chassis of an enormous metallic boll weevil hurtled into the same field, leaving a trough of freshly ploughed earth behind him.
"Where's the grub, Kickback, Kickback?" the boll weevil Insecticon echoed in his tinny voice.
Kickback tested the cut wheat shafts in his mandibles then spat the bristles out. "This field's been spent by those puny humans, humans."
As the dark shape of the third Insecticon scuttled into the field beside the other two, both Kickback and Bombshell tensed instinctively. The third Insecticon wrapped his mandibles around the nearest dry stalks, but immediately spat them out also. The large chromed jaws of the black and purple Insecticon, in the form of a giant stag beetle, twitched with distaste.
An incomprehensible metallic echo resonated from the stag beetle before he spoke. "All of the food is gone, gone."
During the recent summer months, the Insecticons enjoyed their fill of organic resources, but the harvesting season was nearing its close and food sources were growing scarce. They and their growing clone army needed to feed, and they needed to find a new source of energy soon.
It would have been easier to return to a different part of the Earth where their feeding could continue uninterrupted, but once they tasted the variety of rich energy sources in North America, they did not want to leave. The buffet was definitely superior here than in their former habitat of Indonesia, but it was harder to feed on the choicest items because the accursed Autobots were always alerted to their actions. Very often it was not worth the effort to pursue the human energy resource facilities because an ensuing battle with the Autobots burned through much of the energy they devoured, bringing the Insecticons back to an energy level close to that before their meal.
Also, an alliance with the other Decepticons failed since Megatron did not want to share his energon with anyone but his loyal warriors. First, the traitor promised the Insecticons a cornucopia of energy sources in North America, luring them away from their monopoly on the fields of Bali. But then Megatron double-crossed them by opening fire on them when the Insecticons fed on the energon that Megatron dutifully provided in exchange for a favor. Megatron was not a trustworthy source of energy.
So, with Megatron and the Autobots competing for energy in the same vicinity as the Insecticons, the Insecticons needed to increase their numbers if they were to stand a chance of surviving. The production of their precious clone army, created from Bombshell's insecto-shells and Shrapnel's clone beams, was the answer. However, once the army was created, it needed to be sustained, which required much more energy than the three chief Insecticons did. Luckily, the increased numbers gave the Insecticons the confidence to attempt an attack on a more potent energy source than measly, organic foodstuffs.
Bombshell raised his long, chromed snout above the field, testing the air. "We may have missed the feast here, Shrapnel, but I smell something good in the air, air."
Kickback's antennae perked up. The large, metallic grasshopper double-checked his olfactory sensors. "That must be what I'm smelling, smelling." He pushed himself forward with his powerful hind legs, eagerly testing for the source of the delectable smell wafting over his sensors. "I knew I was headed in the right direction, right direction." The grasshopper brought the ends of his hind legs up against his body, then, with an enormous thrust of his hydraulics, jetted himself high into the air. A moment later, his aerial thrusters kicked in and he soared through the air, led by his olfactory sensors.
Bombshell turned to address the clone army. "Insecticons, follow us, us!"
Both Bombshell and Shrapnel took to the sky after Kickback. Behind them, a dark swarm of their copies obediently followed.
The cloud of Insecticons flew east across the dry, harvested fields far below, coasting on the wind toward the approaching mountain range. The smell of energy blowing in draughts toward them from some unknown source grew stronger as they passed over the range of forested foothills below. With energy absorbers starved dry, the Insecticons and their army could not deny themselves the feast that awaited them, no matter what it was. The more the scent of energy coated their olfactory sensors the more determined they became to find the source and take it. As they approached through the mountain passes, the Insecticons determined that the energy was emanating from the base of the high white cloud venting into the sky, however they had yet to fully comprehend what the source was.
"I can't wait to gorge myself on such a fresh smelling source of energy, eh Bombshell, Bombshell?" Shrapnel commented, appendages twitching excitedly underneath him.
Bombshell turned his chromed snout in Shrapnel's direction as he answered. "What do you say it's a large tanker spill, ripe for us to clean up, clean up?"
That would be easy pickings, indeed. The two beetle Insecticons laughed in their tinny, metallic voices, until Kickback interrupted them.
"Autobot, Autobot!" Kickback announced with an exasperated echo. "Flee before he sees us, sees us!" The Insecticon abruptly descended from the sky and disappeared into the thick of pine trees below.
"We don't need to flee an Autobot! There are so many more of us than them, them," Shrapnel replied with a metallic tone of glee.
"No," Bombshell ordered, altering his flight path and following Kickback. "We are too low on energy. We can't risk him calling for others, others."
Reminded of the need to protect their clone army, Shrapnel reluctantly also dropped out of sight into the wooded mountains below. He knew that they may be able to defeat a single Autobot, but would risk losing a significant number of their clones should more Autobots join a fight.
The boll weevil Insecticon landed on a boulder barely larger than him. He adjusted his footing, balancing as he inched himself around to find the others nearby. The Insecticon army dropped out of the sky around them like dark, metallic rain. The clones were not picky about where they found a foothold while they waited for the next direction from their hosts. Robotic grasshopper, stag beetle and boll weevil copies clung to the nearest tree, rock, or patch of ground.
"So what do we do now? That Autobot is blocking our way to the energy, energy," Kickback asked, worried that their feast may be denied them.
"He is in the air, but we are now on the ground. We can burrow beneath him to our meal, meal," Shrapnel responded with confidence.
"But that will take much energy," the grasshopper replied with a tinny vocalizer filled with dismay. "How much farther is it, is it?"
"That, my fellow Insecticons," Bombshell answered, "is the question of the day, day." He double-checked his internal geo-tracking system, and raised his mandible to address the other two as well as the entire Insecticon army. As he spoke, his metallic vocalizer rang as if he were smiling. "My sensors tell me that today we will be feasting courtesy of the Autobots. This delectable smell that we've been following has led us to the Autobot's Headquarters, Headquarters."
The other two Insecticons' vocalizers gasped with a raspy noise of shock and surprise.
"What?!" Shrapnel demanded, indignantly. "You expect us to take energon from the Autobots, Autobots?"
Kickback made a tinny noise in desperation. "We can't fight them for it, for it."
Bombshell laughed a strange, metallic laugh. "Fight them? We don't need to fight them. We'll take it right out from under olfactory sensors, sensors."
Shrapnel recalled the white cloud venting off in the distance and realized that the source must have been the Autobot's volcano, with the smell of fresh energy coming from their energon processing equipment. It must be overloaded, he thought with mouth buzzing for energy, for it to be emitting a scent so strong, so far away.
Realizing Bombshell's plan to attack the energon generating equipment below the Autobot base, where there were no defenses, the Insecticon raised his chromed mandibles high, confidence renewing. His tinny chuckle resonated deep within his vocalizer. Yes, they would take as much energon as they needed, and no one would even know they were there.
"Insecticons!" Bombshell ordered loudly. "We burrow underneath Autobot Headquarters! A fresh batch of energon awaits us, awaits us!"
Kickback's antennae perked up at Bombshell's plan. Bombshell dug his long chromed mandible into the ground in front of him. Chunks of heaved earth flung to each side behind the chief Insecticon as he burrowed into the ground and disappeared. A moment later, Kickback bounded after the boll weevil Insecticon in the freshly turned out tunnel.
Shrapnel shoveled the earth before him with his own large mandibles until he had a hole started that he could press his metallic frame through. As soon as the third host disappeared, the first of the Insecticon army began to chew their own holes into the ground. The clones pushed themselves into a few earth passages to gain the advantage of their joined efforts in burrowing quickly to the energy source. Within minutes, the entire Insecticon army disappeared from sight under the cover of the sweeping boughs above.
Fireflight swooped down out of the sky and transformed into his robot mode. He balanced himself on the diminishing thrust from his engines, setting himself gently down near Silverbolt. The Aerialbot leader stood awaiting Fireflight's report.
"It must have just been a flock of birds," Fireflight explained, perplexed. "I didn't find anything unusual, or even interesting."
Silverbolt considered the Aerialbot's reconnaissance. "Strange…but I suppose it the right time of year for them to be migrating."
Fireflight shrugged as Skydive approached up the slope toward them.
"I suggest we keep our sensors alerted," the air warfare strategist recommended with a hint of suspicion in his vocalizer. He placed his fists on his hip plates and gazed up at the volcano behind the other Aerialbots. "I don't know about you, but my alert sensors are buzzing about this."
Silverbolt trusted Skydive's assessment, although he had no inner sense of alert over a large flock of birds, or whatever it was, observed on radar to the east of the base. After all, it was not the first odd thing the Autobots had ever picked up in their aerial space.
"Okay," Silverbolt conceded. "Skydive, you and Fireflight keep up aerial surveillance, just in case you're right. If there's something out there in the sky or on the ground, we'll be sure to find it…or put else the concern to rest."
Skydive nodded solemnly in acknowledgement. Glad to be directed back to the skies, Fireflight simply turned and leapt high into the air over the edge of the mountainside, kicking in his engines to catch his weight perfectly as he transformed midair. The hot exhaust from his thrusters pushing him skyward gusted over the other two Aerialbots. Skydive reflexively raised his arm to cover his faceplate, and a moment later followed Fireflight skyward, although careful not to vent the Aerialbot leader with his engine exhaust.
Silverbolt shook his head.