Chapter Three
They had been given a few days of peace, but at dawn on that third day, all hell broke loose at the base.
The Decepticons were coming, and coming fast. Blackout, Barricade, Starscream, Soundwave, and Frenzy lead the assault with at least six other mechs, including Thundercracer and Skywarp. The mechs at the base were outnumbered, but not quite outgunned. The base was an easily defensible area, and none of them were moving.
Veris, Greystreak, and Sheol guarded the front door, watching as the Decepticons readied themselves for the attack. Greystreak frowned. "What in pit is Starscream doing out there?" he muttered. Sheol shook his head.
"No idea, but I'm more than willing to bet that Megatron threatened to tear his spark out if he didn't go along with it." the mech muttered darkly. "Besides, he may be here trying to keep his eye on Rae." Silver nodded from his position by the backdoor. Harbinger stood beside him, trying to raise Bracket on their private radio. Rae was out hunting with him again. He had to be warned not to bring Rae back to the base until Harbinger gave the ok. He cursed violently.
"They're out of range. Slag it, I told them to stay close to the base!" he hissed. Silver shook his head.
"That could be a good thing." he said quietly. "If they're far enough away, the Decepticons won't pick up on Bracket's signal. Things could work in our favor."
"Could." Harbinger said sourly. "Don't count on it." He turned towards the others, sending Veris a half-pleading, half-stated look. He was going after Rae, no matter what Veris said. He just hoped the Autobot he had come to respect understood.
Veris nodded slowly. "Go find her, Harbinger." he said quietly. He understood fully what was tearing at the Decepticon – Harbinger had lost one youngling under his care, and he was terrified that he would lose another. The Decepticon flashed him a humorless grin and took off out the back door. Silver looked at Veris in confusion.
"Was that wise?" he asked. "If Harbinger runs into any of them, he'll lead them straight to Rae."
"It may not have been wise." Veris admitted. "But it's the only thing I can do. Come on. Let's focus on the task at hand. The Decepticons will only wait so long."
/---/
Rae was running, darting in between trees and jumping over roots and fallen limbs, trying her hardest to lose the mech chasing her. She had thought that its massive size would have slowed it down, and it did. It was still faster than her.
Slag, but it was big!
Rae cursed under her breath, the clicks and beeps of the Cybertronian language coming as naturally to her as the English she had been raised on. Unfortunately for the mechs who raised her, when Sheol and Silver started teaching her the language, the curses had popped up most frequently. Needless to say, she was a master at cussing in Cybertronian. Much to everyone else's amusement.
"Rae!"
She skid to a halt, sliding underneath another mech's legs as Harbinger came crashing over her, slamming into the Decepticon that had been attacking her. Bracket was by her side once again, keeping an eye on her. Rae watched with openmouthed amazement.
She had seen Harbinger pissed off before. She knew exactly how dangerous he was when he felt threatened – or when she was threatened. After all, how many times had he attacked Sheol and Greystreak when their fights got out of hand and Rae was too close? It hadn't happened often; if anything, Sheol and Greystreak were quick learners. It was still enough that even Rae understood that no mech wanted to be on the receiving end of his fury. But this –
This was simply incredible.
Harbinger had attacked the Decepticon with reckless abandon, knocking it back and on the ground before it could even think to counter the assault. "Slag it, Harbinger!" the thing spat. "I should have known you would be here!"
"You won't hurt my youngling, Devastator!" Harbinger spat out. "Rae, run!" He looked up only long enough to tell that Rae had taken his words to heart and was running fast towards the base, Bracket still clinging to her shoulder. Once she was safely out of optic range, he turned his focus back to Devastator. The Decepticon was laughing now, a malicious glint in his eyes.
"Your youngling?" he hissed. "I would have thought the last time would have shown you the folly of taking on sparklings. Then again, I think the loss knocked some screws loose. Your CPU's on the fritz."
Harbinger slammed his fist into Devastator's torso, right where a human stomach would have been. The result was similar to punching a human in the gut. Devastator's optics dimmed, but not by much.
"You killed him!" Harbinger shouted. "You were the one who lead that youngling to his death, despite what Megatron says. He should never have been out there in that battle; he was too young. You were the one who ordered it! You got him killed!" His left arm transformed into a dagger, and he stabbed it straight through Devastator's shoulder, pinning him to the soft earth.
"You killed Frenzy, but I won't let you kill Rae!"
/---/
Rae tripped and fell again just as three F-22s flew overhead, twisting back around to land in front of her. They transformed into three more Decepticons before hitting the ground. Rae scowled. "Just my pit-slagging luck." she growled. "I had to find the Seekers."
Standing in front of her were Starscream, Thundercracker, and Skywarp. Not that Rae knew who Thundercracker and Skywarp were, but she understood the relationship they held to Starscream. They were all brothers, in the mech sense of the term. Megatron's famous Seekers, and they all hated the leader as much as Starscream did. In fact, if Starscream ever succeeded in overthrowing Megatron, Thundercracker and Skywarp would be his biggest supporters.
Along with fifty other Decepticon mechs. No honor among thieves, so to speak.
Starscream sent Rae a silent look of warning, one that spoke volumes. Rae nodded. Silently, she reached up and tapped Bracket on the head. The mech nodded slightly and jumped from her shoulder, taking off in the direction of the base. None of the other mechs moved.
"Nice try, fleshling." Skywarp cackled. "We ain't gonna go chasing after some pit-spawned drone of yours."
Rae almost rolled her eyes, but composed herself to a resigned look. "All right. I'm tired of running, and I doubt I'm going to outrun either of you anyways. So – " She bent down, picked up a decent sized pinecone, and took aim.
CRACK!
Thundercracker was down an optic. Rae was on the run once again.
Starscream just had to laugh.
/---/
In the end, the mechs made it back to their base without Rae. As much as Veris hated leaving her to the Seekers, he knew she would be reasonably safe with Starscream. He had arrived just in time to see Skywarp force the girl into Starscream's cabin and got a good view of a one-optic Thundercracker cursing up a storm. He had smiled at that, although it was a strained one.
It would take some doing to get their youngling back again.
Silver sighed in defeat as he stared glumly out of the base door. "Well, they're down Soundwave, Thundercracker, and two other unknown mechs." he commented dryly. "We're down Rae. Who got the short end of that stick?"
"Oh, that's not all they're down." Harbinger said offhandedly, toying with something he'd had with him ever since he got back to the base. No one had really gotten a good look at what it was, but they could only assume it was the reason he was so calm about all of this. Veris gave him a look, but didn't comment on it.
"The unknowns are dead." Case said shortly. "Soundwave had a dagger shoved through his head, so the only reason he's still alive is because of that stupid mind-reading trick of his. It went haywire before I could kill him. Thundercracker is injured, but not nearly as seriously. He'll live. Soundwave may not."
"Not much of a loss." Bracket murmured. Greystreak nodded fervently.
Sheol frowned. "What are you toying with?" he demanded.
Harbinger smirked and held up his prize: Devastator's left arm. Case shook his head.
"What is it with you and arms?"
