A/N: Surprise! You thought I stopped writing, didn't you. Oh well.

If you were expecting an Echo, well, believe me, that's in the works and almost finished.

Anyone want to make a guess (or put in a request?) for who the two in the escape pod are/will be?

Shipping Up To Boston

Katie slouched in her chair, idly watching the ten little blips moving slowly across her personal screen. The first eight blips were the Seekers; the ninth blip was Megatron, with Thunderblast and Shockwave roped under him; and the tenth blip was Soundwave (who the crew of the AWACS plane were discussing – why on earth would anyone paint a stealth plane white?

"Remind me again why we're going to Boston?" she asked into her microphone.

Starscream's voice replied, quick as a whip. "A Cybertronian escape pod crashed somewhere around there. If it is Decepticon, we'll recruit them, and if not...well, we'll get to that later."

Skywarp's voice overrode Starscream. "Woo! Field trip, losers! Hey, TC?"

"What." Thundercracker said.

"If Jetfire's there, d'you want to screw with him a bit?"

"You're sayin' that loike I don't screw with him 'nyway." Thundercracker replied, his voice twinging with a distinct Australian twang.

"TC? You're Australian?!" Katie asked.

"What are you talking about? I'm a sentient robot from outer space. Did you forget that bit again?" TC replied.

"No, no. Your voice! It's Australian! I can't believe I missed that."

"I don't have an Australian accent, whatever that is. I have a slight Nebulonian accent, but that only comes out when—"

"When he doesn't have a stick shoved up his exhaust." Skywarp finished proudly.

"Thanks for that image." Katie said flatly.

"Deceptions!" Megatron regained order with a word. "We are approaching the crash site. Soundwave, jam the AWACS aircraft's visual inputs. We do not need to reveal ourselves to any more humans than is necessary."

Shockwave's head appeared on Katie's glasses. "Katherine, as I am sure you are aware, these spectacles I have provided you will allow you to monitor our progress, and remain in contact. They display a holographic link to Soundwave's communications link, a video uplink, as well as a battle-map, all updated in real time. You will assist Soundwave in providing intelligence to Megatron."

"Roger that, Shockwave. Soundwave? AWACS out."

"I hear you. Killin' this mix." Soundwave replied.

Suddenly, every screen in the AWACS plane shorted out and died. Shouts of surprise rang out, until the commander asked loudly if anyone still had a feed.

"Sir!" Katie replied. "Seeker Flights One-Actual, Two-Actual, and their CAS still has connection."

"Right! You are now operating as callsign Sherlock. Commence the operation." the commander replied.

Katie tapped on her screen. "This is AWACS, callsign Sherlock." She grimaced – Katie did not like her callsign. "Seeker One-Actual, Seeker Two-Actual, you have clearance to move in. CAS callsign Megatron, you are also go to deploy. Seeker Three-Zero, you are to cover Sherlock."

"Roger, Sherlock. Seeker One-Actual is sweeping the crash site." Starscream acknowledged crisply, and he, TC, Skywarp, and Sunstorm banked away.

"Wilco, Sherlock. Seeker Two-Actual is Oscar Mike." Slipstream replied, herself and her flight (Dirge, Ramjet, and Thrust) following Starscream.

"Copy. CAS is deploying." Megatron said, swooping low over the trees.

"Soundwave is on your six, Sherlock. Chill."

Katie raised an eyebrow as she picked up some more contacts on her radar screen. "Seekers, CAS. I'm picking up several contacts circled around the crash site. Tally in twenty seconds."

"Roger. Friendlies?" Skywarp responded.

"Don't know, Skywarp. Can you get visual?" A small red blip appeared on Katie's radar screen – a missile. "Whoa! AAM launched! Say again, we have hostile spike. Break right, Seekers!"

The missile swept past Starscream's left wing. "That's an Autobot missile. We have Autobot contacts, sir." he said to Megatron.

"Seeker Flight, I've got five presumably hostile bogeys closing fast. You are cleared hot." Katie relayed to Starscream.

"Soundwave. I would appreciate if you supplied Shockwave and Thunderblast with air support." Megatron ordered. "Starscream, engage the Autobot fliers."

"Yes, sir. Seeker One-Actual engaging the enemy now." Starscream replied.

"I'm gettin' down in with the crew on the floor." Soundwave informed Katie. "Lay some science down on them for me, homies."

Starscream, Thundercracker and Skywarp shot ahead of the rest then broke formation, flying through the four Autobots and scattering them.

The lead Autobot, a huge Concorde jet, swung around and transformed. "Starscream! Stop prancing around and fight!"

Starscream laughed. "Silverbolt! I didn't think you were Prime's cleanup detail."

Silverbolt, a very tall, tarnished silver robot with glowing, angry red eyes and a rifle the size of a small car, was obviously quite displeased that he was described as "cleanup detail." He transformed and flew after Starscream, but didn't get very far before Skywarp vworped out of nowhere, transformed, and literally shoved a missile up the bigger jet's afterburners before vworping away again. Silverbolt spiralled away down toward the earth.

"Um, okay. Fox One, Seeker One-Three?" Katie said, eyebrow raised.

"Roger that, Sherlock." Skywarp replied cheerfully.

The other four jets, strange, bronze-coloured MiG 21s, were easily shot down by Starscream and Thundercracker (and one of them who tried to touch Sunstorm had his hand melted off and then Skywarp shot him).

"Autotroopers." Thundercracker mused. "So where're the other Aerialbots?"

"Four contacts, above you, closing fast! Break! Break!" Katie shouted, just as four mismatched aircraft (a F/A 18 Hornet; a BAE Systems Harrier; a Panavia Tornado; and an F-16 Fighting Falcon) dropped out of the sky.

Silverbolt flew up from the ground to meet his gestalt brothers.

Thunderblast suddenly appeared on Katie's glasses. "We've got the escape pod contained here. Shockwave's identified the pod as friendly, and he's keeping the Autobot ground forces out of the way. Knock Out's finally shown up and he and Breakdown are working on getting the poor bots out of there." She turned to the medic and his helper, yelling "Let's get some work done, ladies!" very loudly, before turning back to the camera. "But we've got an issue; Jetfire's bugging us, and while Soundwave's holding his own, we could use some air support."

Thundercracker instantly turned away and flew off. "I'll handle Jetfire, milady."

With Thundercracker gone, the Aerialbots managed to assemble. Everyone on Katie's channels audibly drew breath.

"What? What's the problem?" Katie asked.

"Seekers, break off! We can't fight Superion without Thundercracker!" Starscream ordered, as the five Autobot aircraft suddenly lurched in the air and started transforming.

The giant Silverbolt formed some kind of grotesque torso, with the other jets becoming twisted limbs with clawed hands and feet. A giant head appeared out of the torso, with huge serrated teeth and burning red eyes.

"Superion" roared at the retreating Seekers.

"Whoa, that's like, a really, really messed up Voltron." Katie blurted out.

"Tch, yeah, no scrap, KT." Skywarp said.

Megatron appeared out of nowhere and transformed, hovering in front of the giant. He raised one of his broadswords.

"Decepticons!" he cried. "Fear not! Swarm Superion – he will be unable to counter all of us at once!"

With that he launched himself through the sky to cut straight through Superion's reaching hand and tear the cables and pistons holding it together. Superion gave a huge roar of pain and swiped at Megatron, only for Sunstorm to melt the fingers of his other hand, and Ramjet to literally fly into the gestalt's eye, shattering it; while Skywarp teleported around his giant legs, firing purple lasers at the joints, and Slipstream tore out pieces of wire with a glowing blue sword.

Starscream, who previously had been hanging back, flew forward and directed a super-powered sonic scream at the Aerialbots' combined form's chest.

Superion staggered backwards, and Megatron seized the opportunity. The shining silver leader hefted his sword and threw it with titanic force directly into Superion's giant forehead, causing the behemoth to topple over, crushing what was left of the forest beneath him.

Megatron flew down and landed on Superion's forehead. He pulled his sword out from the inky black metal, the blade doused in purple liquid. "We spare your spark, Superion. I only hope Prime shows you the same courtesy." Megatron raised his sword to the sky. "For Cybertron!"

The Seekers followed him down, and cheerfully kicked at their defeated enemy, taking up the cry of "For Cybertron!"

Katie, satisfied that Superion wasn't getting up any time soon, switched back to Thunderblast's team. Knock Out and Breakdown were helping two blasted-looking Transformers out of the escape pod.

"You're going to be just fine, darling." Knock Out was saying. "I'll have that blast damage good as new in just a tick, and then you have to direct me to your detailer because damn straight, femme,you look fine!"

"Yeah, let's just focus on gettin' them back up to workin' order for now, KO." Breakdown replied, pulling his own casualty out.

Katie switched to Thundercracker's view. The blue Seeker was currently engaged in aerial combat with a bulky sickly-green coloured cargo jet.

"You can't get away, Jetfire!" Thundercracker shouted at him.

Jetfire turned skywards and rocketed up. "Wanna bet?" he taunted in a squawky Australian – okay, fine, Nebulonian – accent.

Thundercracker effortlessly kept pace with the green jet. "Uh, yeah! Ai think Ai do!" he replied, his accent coming through again.

"Scrap!" Jetfire cursed, turning this way and that, hoping to escape Thundercracker, but the blue MiG 25 stayed set on his tail.

"Scrap this! Ratchet, gimme a Groundbridge!" he yelled, before a swirl of green appeared before him. He flew through it and it closed up behind him.

"Decepticons, the day is ours!" Megatron declared on all Deception frequencies, over the sound of cheering.

"Roger that, CAS. Sir, operation complete, Seeker flights are RTB at this time." Katie said proudly, spinning in her chair and hailing the AWACS commander.

"Roger that, Holmes. AWACS plane Sherlock is RTB. Let's go home."

Now, some air force jargon for you.

CAS – close air support

Wilco – Will Comply

Oscar Mike – On Move

tally – have visual contact

AAM – Air to Air Missile

spike – hostile missile launch

break – make high-g turn in direction specified

bogey – unrecognised aerial radar contact

cleared hot – missile weapons release authorised

Fox One – guided missile weapon fired

break, break – all aircraft scatter

RTB – Returning To Base