Disclaimer: Transformers and all other characters related to the 2007 movie are owned by their respective owners, not me.

Chapter 6: Exposition

Hot Shot spun in a frantic circle, the chains in his wheels digging into the ground throwing up clouds of mud as another group of cluster missiles went wide. Hot Shot's previously silver chassis was now stained a dirty brown all over. Whilst the mud felt disgusting it did provide the added advantage of making into very hard to distinguish him from the mud on the ground meaning that Starscream's missile bombardments kept going wide of their mark. Two small machine guns had popped up on either side of Hot Shot's bonnet and he was trying to get a lock on Starscream as the Decepticon banked to the side bringing his own machine gun to bear. The logical part of Hot Shot's central processor screamed at him that he had no chance. Starscream was faster, better armed and more heavily armoured than he was and the only way to save himself from becoming a smoking pile of slag was to drive away as fast as possible. But the rest of Hot Shot's brain disagreed and the guns opened up.

In reality, the effectiveness of the guns was similar to throwing peas at a gorilla. One or two broke through Starscream's plating causing him mild discomfort as they wedged themselves into non-essential systems. Starscream retaliated in kind by transforming into robot mode. He could still fly and utilise the missile bays housed under his wings, but now the two chainguns welded into his arms could come into play. With a digitised war cry, Starscream let loose with everything in his arsenal. Bullets raked the mud as missiles detonated in balls of orange flame. Hot Shot spun, jammed the gear stick into top gear and roared away. But the arsenal was catching up and, just behind the missiles, was Starscream who was reloading ready for another assault. The two guns on Hot Shot's bonnet moved independently of each other, both shooting down missiles before they could impact. But there were too many, some of them were going to hit.

One missile struck Hot Shot's rear right wheel. The force of the explosion ripped the wheel clean off and sent Hot Shot into an uncontrollable skid. The sudden change of direction forced most of the other missiles to miss and bullets to run wide. But now Hot Shot was crippled. He could no longer run. So he had to fight. Within a few seconds Hot Shot had transformed. On his back, where one of his wheels should have gone, there was now just a gaping hole, through which wires sparked and fizzed. Hot Shot threw his arms forward, letting the flaps on his forearms open up. The two guns housed there fell out into his hands. Hot Shot rolled forwards as another missile streaked over his head and came up firing. Bullets flew through the air between both sides but very few had enough power to penetrate armour, so a change of strategy was called for.

The hubcaps of the two tyres mounted on Hot Shot's shoulders flipped up revealing a rack of missiles. All of them tore forward in a trail of smoke. Smiling slightly at the bravado of the pathetic Autobot in front of him, Starscream opened his own missile bays. Not only were Starscream's missiles more powerful than Hot Shot's but there were more of them. Starscream's missiles tore through Hot Shot's like paper with more than enough left over to destroy the Autobot.

A spray of gunfire from the left hit the missiles left over, detonating them all. Both Starscream and Hot Shot spun towards the unexpected development. In Starscream's case, this was probably a mistake as an entire clip of gatling bullets hit him in the chest. And these weren't the weaker bullets that recon models such as Hot Shot were issued with. These were high-profile armour piercing rounds that were more than capable of penetrating his chassis. Crying out in pain, Starscream fell to the ground. His flight engine had been pierced and flying was difficult, if not impossible. But he needed to fly. Suddenly, he had lost the advantage and this new opponent was sufficiently equipped to severely damage if not destroy him. And, with the Nemesis in human hands any self-repair would be a long and painful process. He needed to get away. Starscream managed to pull himself to his hands and knees but was immediately sent sprawling as a plate of metal hit him in the side of the head.

Ratchet continued to press the advantage by continuing to fire. The younger Transformers had recovered from his shock and also added his bullets to the barrage. Starscream yelled an insult of outrage and defiance and transformed. With one engine spluttering, the jet flew away over the treetops. Ratchet turned to the younger Transformer and pointed his gun at its head.

"Ok. Now that he's dealt with, mind telling me who you are and what you're doing here?"

"Hot Shot sir! Recon Autobot from Cybertron escape team Bravo. My teammate and I were sent to this planet in order to determine the origin of a signal believed to have been sent by Optimus Prime!" Hot Shot rattled this all off quickly and without pause. He kept his eyes on the space just above Ratchet's head and maintained a salute al the time. Ratchet smiled and motioned for the Autobot to lower his hand.

"Well, you got lucky kid. I'm Ratchet. Medical officer of Cybertron escape team Alpha. I'll take you to see Optimus. You can send a transmission to your friend on the way. We'd better start moving. Starscream might have backup."

Three miles down the beach from where Ironhide lay unconscious, Barricade trundled along, scanning for any metallic object large enough to be Frenzy. The Decepticon hacker had maintained radio silence since he had sent the SOS transmission and Barricade was searching for the miraculous resurrected Transformer. His scanners picked up a quantity of metal only a few hundred metres away that matched Frenzy's size. Barricade set off towards it.

The quantity of metal his scanner had picked up was a portable stereo inside a shopping trolley. Both were covered in rust and copious amounts of seaweed. Barricade snorted and started to scan again when the stereo twitched. The two speakers took on a bluish tint and the panelling began to shift, turning itself into Frenzy's head. The shopping trolley was also twisting, its spindly fibres of metal became Frenzy's arms and legs. The rust was also moving until it coalesced at Frenzy's hands, giving him the impression that he was wearing gloves. The Decepticon shook himself in order to rid himself of the seaweed and walked over to Barricade. The miniature Decepticon quickly hacked through Barricade's firewalls, found the door release command and activated it. The passenger door swung open and Frenzy clambered in.

"You could have just asked." Barricade said in Decepticon. Frenzy just growled.

"Shut up and get me out of here. I've had it up to here with this damn ocean." Frenzy snarled and turned to wave a fist at the expanse of blue. Barricade gave a mental shrug, put himself into gear and drove off. He hit the off-ramp and continued onto the freeway.

"So. Mind explaining how you've managed to be sitting in my passenger seat as opposed to laying at the bottom of the ocean?" Barricade asked overtaking a car on the inside.

"Can't say for sure." Frenzy muttered. The little Decepticon had turned Barricade's heaters on and had dried off. This seemed to improve his mood slightly. "I have numerous theories as to my return. And numerous ways in which they could be applied to allow for the return of our other fallen comrades, including Lord Megatron."

Barricade said nothing. He was waiting to see what Frenzy's next step would be. The two had been partners many times in the past under both Megatron's command and Starscream's and he had no doubt as to the Decepticon's loyalty. But resurrecting Lord Megatron would be difficult. Especially considering the Autobot's newfound alliance with the human militia.

"So. What is your plan?" Barricade asked as he made the turning back towards Tranquillity.

"Take me to a human airport," Frenzy said. "or, failing that, access to their computer network. More information is needed." Barricade agreed and took the next turning towards Tranquillity airport.

Bumblebee hit the beach doing 85 and skidded down the embankment in a shower of sand. He screeched to a stop in front of Ironhide's prone form. The larger Autobot had been performing some internal repairs and had enough energy to open one dim eye as they approached.

"Hey guys." He wheezed. Sam and Mikaela leapt out of Bumblebee's seats and hurried over to where Ironhide lay. Mikaela had a cursory glance at Ironhide's injuries with her mechanic's eye. He was hurt badly, but fortunately very few of his vital systems had taken massive damage. Ratchet could repair the damage in twenty minutes. She moved to get her communicator out of her shorts pocket but saw that Sam was ahead of her on that respect. Sam nodded to whoever he was talking to (She presumed it was Ratchet.) and put the comm back in his jeans and walked over to her.

"Ratchet'll be here in an hour. Says he's got a surprise for us." Mikaela nodded and the two sat down on the sand to wait. Ironhide turned to look at them.

"You two gonna sit there for an entire hour?" he asked. The two smiled reassuringly. Ironhide grinned back and laid his head back down. "Thanks kids. Let's just hope Barricade don't come back."

(Happy New Year to all my readers. Thank you for your continued support. Sorry about the lateness of this chapter but I hope you'll find it worth it. Stay tuned for the next chapter.)