Author's Note: So the story is starting to pick up wooooooo. Anyway, I do not actually plan on following the plot (or rather lack thereof) of AoE. I'm going to draw from parts of it for this AU, though, as you will start to notice more in this chapter. So, I hope you continue to enjoy. (Yes, there is a bit of a time skip at the front.)
Chapter 16
"The government is disbanding the program after the Chicago incident."
The words ran rampant through Sam's thoughts as he leaned against Bee. What? Lennox could not be serious. There was no way that the government would get rid of NEST. They needed them to fight off any other threats, because there would be other threats; not human ones, but surely there were more Decepticons scattered out in space than those that remained on Earth. "How do they plan on fighting the remaining 'Cons?" Sam called to Lennox and Director Mearing (whom he had hated from the moment they met, but that was beside the point). "Do you honestly think you could fight off another wave of 'Cons like what happened in Chicago if they happened to invade again?"
"That is a matter of human concern now." She replied, emphasizing the word in a way that made him clench his hands tightly at his sides. She stepped up to him, arms crossed over her chest. "Last I heard, you were one of them now. Which means you, like the rest of the Autobots, are no longer welcome on American soil. You all will be given a week to get out of here before the government will take the actions it sees fit."
:Optimus, this is slag!: Sideswipe was the first to complain over the Autobot team's comm., followed shortly by his twin.
:After all we did for them, this is how they repay us? I knew we should have just left the little amoebas alone.:
After the twins came more complaints, the ruckus over the comm. growing louder with each added voice. Sam could barely hear himself think, let alone hear Lennox start to argue with Mearing before him. He huffed, sending out a loud burst of static over the comm. that worked better than the Prime's order to be silent. He watched as many bots who were not in their alt modes flinched, covering their auditory sensors as if that would help.
"-everything they have done, you can't be serious! They aren't fucking freeloaders, these mechs are our comrades, our friends! Many of them have died and shed blood alongside us for American issues, but when some of our people die in a fight for them, we can't deal anymore?" Lennox snapped, temper obviously getting the best of him.
"There were thousands of civilians injured and killed in the Chicago incident, soldier." Mearing countered, stepping into Lennox's personal space and not even seeming phased by his more imposing size. "You would do well to remember the death count for our kind was much higher than theirs. They were meant to be gone long before this, if you don't remember that clever trick they pulled. It has been decided that that was the best course of action to take again. The matter is out of my hands now, General." Only then did she seem to be even slightly remorseful. It was barely noticeable, though; the slight slouch of her shoulders and the dropping of the volume of her voice. She was upset with them, like many people were, but it seemed she at least saw that they were needed.
"Permission to speak." Everyone's heads snapped to Drift, who had not made a move or said a word since they had all been summoned several minutes beforehand. He waited until Optimus nodded to him before continuing. He leaned down some, speaking directly to Mearing and Lennox. "Your people are making a big mistake." What he said left Mearing gaping before her expression soured and her eyes narrowed.
"Then it is our mistake to make." Her tone was dismissive, and with a single snort, Drift backed away.
"And it will be your end. Others will rise, worse than the leaderless Decepticons you see now." He went silent at that, watching as the director visibly fumed. Was Drift trying to get her riled up? Sam honestly knew little about the mech, other than what he had heard from others. Was this the peaceful mechs way of trying to ensure they still had a place on Earth?
"We defended ourselves fine before you, and will continue to do so once you all are gone. In a week." And with that, Mearing marched off. Lennox threw an exasperated look after her before following, still trying to plea the Autobots case.
Jolt was the first to break the silence among the bots. "That went over great." Skids and Mudflap voiced their agreement, earning a few glares as they slowly devolved into fighting amongst themselves. Ironhide went to pull them apart, throwing them each aside roughly. They collided with various equipment about the main hub room of NEST's base.
"You always had a way with words, Deadlock, although I much preferred you silent." Megatron snarked, pushing passed his spark mate and many others to head towards where the Autobots were quartered on base. Sam watched as Drift visibly tensed at the use of his old designation, an odd thing to see with how collected he generally was. "Should we all not get ready to leave? I doubt you all would like to start killing humans, but I see that as our only option to stay here."
"There has to be another way!" Sam said, pushing off of where he was leaning on Bumblebee's leg and walking to the center of where they were all gathered. "They'll see they need you guys! They did last time, obviously, and they will again. Just because one threat is gone doesn't mean another won't come along." Many of them looked on at him, few with hopeful gazes and others without. He puffed his chest out, dropping his holoform and revealing himself. He never did this outside of his and Bee's quarters, but now was not the time to hide. He refused to, and he needed them to do the same. "They need us. Without us, they have nothing to stand between them and whatever else may come. So they want us to leave! Then, we make them think we are gone. We use what we are to our advantage."
Sideswipe rolled his optics, waving a dismissing servo at Sam. "Says you. You don't even have an alt mode. Hell, you could probably just stay here. They'd never know, right? You always keep up that pathetic little hologram when around them. Why stop now?" He sneered, actually causing Sam to take a step back in shock.
"Enough." The deep baritone of Optimus' voice pulled everyone's attention to where he stood. "The humans wish us to leave, so we will leave." An uproar rose up from the group, just like on the comm. but slowly getting worse. It continued on for a few brief moments, the only ones not joining in being Bumblebee, Megatron, Ratchet, Sam, and Optimus. Megatron cast his sparkmate a single, long look before slipping out of the room. Optimus straightened some, raising his voice again. "Enough!"
The whole room went dead silent, each of them stilling. Optics turned to the Prime, many noticing the fury in those deep blue optics. "We will leave here. It is what they want, so we will do it. And, should they need us, we will help them." More protests began but soon stopped after Optimus held up a servo. "We have found some friends amongst the humans. We will protect them should it become necessary. Until then, we must hide. It is all we can do."
. . .
Preparations went slow. Optimus had deemed it necessary to move most of the Autobot contingency to the moon, where they were less likely to be found. Thankfully, the Wreckers were as good at building as they were at destroying and easily outfitted a ship to take some of them there. Most of them went. Those who stayed back were limited to Optimus, Megatron, Ratchet, Ironhide, Drift, Hound, Blaster, Bumblebee, Mudflap and Skids, and Sam. It was decided that it was in their best interest to split up, each of them taking on new alt modes to hide themselves better.
And for twenty five years, they drifted about Earth.
Sam stayed with Bee almost constantly. He took on a new holoform, which took much getting used to. Instead of his once brown hair, he had gone a few shades darker. His skin tone was a bit darker as well, and the eyes of it were the same piercing blue of his optics. It was like shedding the last of his old self. But, it was necessary for both him and Bee to stay safe. If they found him, recognized him, they would surely know Bee was there. He could not risk the other getting hurt.
Not after what happened to Ironhide, Mudflap, and Skids.
It was a while after when they assumed it happened that any of them received the distress signal. They had gathered quite briefly out in the desert of Nevada, as they had grown accustomed to doing occasionally. Yet, the two twins of the group had not shown up. None of them thought anything of it at first, of course. The twins were often late. They all settled in to wait, swapping various reports on what they had seen. It was nice to see them all, but Sam knew Bee was likely starting to miss being around the others more often. He generally spent the days following their brief meetings with the others silent. Sam had been pondering how he may try and cheer up his partner when they all received the signal. It came in a garble of static so loud it brought many of them to their knees. Sam was faintly aware of Optimus calling to Blaster to try and decode the signal while the rest of them adjusted their audio receptors so the signal was not as debilitating.
What Blaster found in the signal made all of their sparks sink briefly before filling with rage. :'Elp! Anybody Sk-skids, he ain't in good shape, nuh uh. W-we need 'elp. They- they attacked us, the 'umans. We need-: The signal had cut off there, the rest of it the static that Sam had come to realize were Cybertronian screams. They were all getting into action then, transforming and speeding away as Blaster worked to pinpoint the exact location of the signal. It was a chaotic mess and none of them were thinking properly.
None of them stopped to consider the possibility of it being a trap.
The fight went south immediately as it started. Humans came out of nowhere with weapons the likes of which none of them had thought they possessed. Their shots pierced through armor easily, one shot going clean through Mudflap's spark chamber. Skids lay offlined beside him; it was likely they had both died even before they had arrived. The fact that the humans would shoot them anyway set Ironhide off, and he went in cannons blazing with the others close on his heels. Each blast from the humans' weapons actually sent them stumbling back.
That did not stop Ironhide, though. The mech saw red, his optics shifting into a sickeningly dark crimson in his rage. He shot at anyone foolish enough to get in his way as he tore to the people who had fired at the once lively and annoying twins. He smacked away the few humans who ran at him with net guns, sending them crashing into what few abandoned buildings lay around them. The others provided some cover fire, Ratchet roaring up behind him. He had vowed never again to give up on a patient, especially after Inferno.
The shot that ripped through Ironhide's spark came seemingly from out of nowhere. The mech staggered in his rampage, a shaking servo rising to his chest. He stumbled forward a few more steps before crashing to the ground. Ratchet's attention quickly shifted to Ironhide, sliding to a stop beside him and starting to work furiously. Weapons were fired all around them, smaller rounds pinging off of his armor. This was most certainly not happening. Not Ironhide, of all mechs. Ratchet had seen this same mech fight off hordes of Decepticons blinded by Dark Energon whips, yet this was to be his demise? No, he simply would not allow it.
"Ironhide!" Sam's voice cried out from where he had taken cover amongst the rubble, Bee providing cover fire from beside him. He peeked around, shielding his optics and helm as concrete fell around them. He felt a familiar sense of queasiness wash over him, a throbbing in his processor causing him to cry out once more in pain. He needed to move. Yes, he need to get to Ironhide. He charged from their cover, ignoring the heat of battle around him. He heard Bee whir desperately for him, Blaster calling to him as well. Their concern did not matter, though. He had to get to Ironhide without purging his tanks everywhere.
"Samuel, get back!" Ratchet ordered as he worked, watching Sam approach. He tried desperately to jolt Ironhide's spark into a stable condition, though he was failing. "Get out of here, Sam!" He flicked his attention to Sam briefly to scan him, taking note of his extremely high temperature as he neared. "Go!"
Another shell like the one that took down Ironhide landed a few feet from them, sending a shower of dirt and asphalt over Sam and Ratchet. The small mech staggered in his footsteps, tripping briefly before collecting himself again. He vaguely heard Optimus calling to retreat, felt Ratchet close a servo around him and run from Ironhide. Nonononono! His spark began to race as he reached for Ironhide, crying out in vain as Ratchet rushed them away. He slammed a fist against Ratchet, demanding to be let go. A shock of blue shot from him, coursing through Ratchet and causing him to jerk in his movements briefly. The medic added that to a list of concerns for later, passing Sam off to Bumblebee and transforming to speed away.
Bumblebee transformed around Sam, speeding off passed Optimus and Megatron who still stood back-to-back. They fought with amazing grace and coordination, like it was what they were built to do. Neither had to speak to the other, likely a perk of the bond they shared. He sent out a quick burst of worry/fear/pleading to Optimus, hoping his guardian would fall back soon as well. Bumblebee's main concern, though, was Sam. The other had not ceased yelling and crying for Ironhide, insisting that he had to get to him.
Once the others were clear of the area, Optimus and Megatron transformed to retreat. Neither spoke as they fled, heading in opposite directions in hopes of losing their attackers. An unspoken promise to reunite when safe passed over their bond. Shortly after, they both closed their end of the bond.
That was the Autobots first encounter with Cemetery Wind. It would not be their last.
