Chapter Three

Tyrell was relieved when he finally spotted the water tower poles in the distance. Epps ran forward to the well, pouring water over his head. He noticed a movement out of the corner of his eye. Suddenly the water tower fell over, sending up a cloud of dust.

"What was that," said Donnelly, looking at Fig.

Fig replied in Spanish, "English dude," said Donnelly. Everyone started to look around.

Suddenly Epps yelled "Whoa."

Ty turned; a tail with a wicked dagger was pointed toward Lennox's back. Lennox jumped back and we all started to shot at the thing. The thing disappeared. We all started to look around, waiting for the thing to show itself again. And when it did, we were all sorry. It just appeared, jumping up behind Donnelly stabbing him all in the same motion then flinging him back and forth. That's when Ty saw what the shape the creature was in; it was the shape of a giant scorpion.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH" Ty yelled, sending a barrage of bullets at the scorpion before turning.

They all began to run towards Mahfouz village. Mahfouz running hand in hand Lennox,

"Where's your papa?" yells Lennox over the sound of gunfire. Mahfouz began shouting for his papa. Suddenly Tyrell felt something hit him on the back, sending him flying until he hit the ground. Tyrell turned around onto his back and stared into the face of death

Funny, Ty didn't feel fear as he looked up at the thing that would surely kill him. Red eyes looked back at him, it clicked its mouth parts. It made a strange clicking sound, it's eyes narrowing.

-g-g-g-g-g-g-

Scorpnok had the humans right where he wanted them. For such small creatures they had sure traveled a long way. Shame he had to kill them, but Blackout had commanded him to. He knocked down the piece of wood that the base of the hill. His scanners told him that the leader had not moved from where he was. Scorpnok raised his tail from the sand, engaging the dagger at tip. Time to die fleshling. He prepared to jab, when the fleshling moved. Slag. Scorpnok burst from the sand, revealing himself for only a second before he disappeared under the sand again. The dumb fleshings weren't moving as he moved to the farthest away, he didn't give any warning. He burst from the sand, using his tail to stab the fleshling. He tried to draw it out, but it was stuck, he flipped his tail around, all the while being barraged by bullets. The fleshling finally came off, Scorpnok turned his attention back to the rest of fleshling, taking notice of the bullets.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH" he heard a voice yell. A quick search on the internet proved that it was an insult, Scorpnok eyes locked on the insect that said it, the insect began to run away. I don't think so fleshling.

Scorpnok grabbed the pack of the fleshing he just skewered and threw it at the retreating figure, his aim was true it hit the fleshling sending him forward, Scorpnok scurried over, just in time to be there when it rolled over. Time to die fleshling. Scorpnok raised his tail staring into the fleshling's eyes, it didn't look scared, Scorpnok narrowed his optics.

-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-

Tyrell grabbed for the grenade that was on his belt and shoved it into the creature's mouth. And as quick as he could flipped on his back and covered his head. The explosion was deafening, Ty scrambled onto his feet running, as the creature shrieked. He dared a glance back, seeing the scorpion shaking his head, the bottom mouth piece hanging off by a piece of metal.

Ty made it to the remains of a brick wall where he heard Epps yelling. "My back pocket… left check, left check."

Tyrell loaded another mag into his gun, jumped up and started shooting at it. The robot didn't seem affected at all; in fact it started shooting missiles from its tail section. A man appeared next to him as he dropped back behind the wall again. It was one of the villagers, he nodded at Tyrell as he got up and began shooting at the robot. The people that the United States called enemies, were uniting with the soldiers to defeat a common enemy.

Tyrell looked up at the man, just as a bullet struck him in the head, showering Tyrell in blood, the villager was dead before he hit the ground. Ty turned his face away from the gory sight, half of the man's skull had been blown away. Ty scrambled up, dodging bullets to flop down behind another piece of broken wall far away from the sight of the dead villager.

The scorpion continued to fire shots at the soldiers, the missiles hitting the taller buildings, sending pieces of flying rock at the squad, each piece as deadly as a bullet. Ty began to run low on ammo, he began to fear what would happen if they didn't the thing down before they ran out.

"Tyrell, get back, the Air Force is coming. Lase the target! We got beam-rider incoming, lase the target!" yelled Lennox as he advanced forward he was pointing his own laser at the robot, showing the jets where to hit. Epps threw a canister that released orange smoke.

"Orange smoke marks target's location" he yelled into the radio.

Tyrell jumped up and ran until he was behind Lenox and Epps. He heard the sound of engines, and looked up to the most beautiful sight. A group of F-22's began to swoop down, firing on the scorpion robot, before pulling up circling around, not leaving until there was a confirmed kill.

The squad only saw a few missiles hit the thing, before a great cloud of smoke, and dust hid it from view. They all could hear it shrieks, but they soon died away. As the smoke cleared, they saw the thing on its back, very much alive as it struggled to flip itself over.

"No friggin' way that thing's still not down" whispered Lennox as it got back on its feet looking very pissed.

Epps radioed the planes to drop saber rounds, to bring the rain.

The F-22's again pounded the monster with shoots. Again they had to wait for the smoke to clear for them to tell if it was it, when it did disperse, they could see it was wounded. It turned tail and disappeared under the sand, a piece of its tail falling off.

Tyrell got up from behind his bit of wall, looking at where it disappeared in a daze. The rounds hadn't killed it, but it still retreated. He could still see its face as it pinned him down, he shivered despite the heat. His attention came snapping back when he heard Epps and Lennox call Fig's name.

"Arrghhh" Ty turned towards the sound of his comrade, Fig was hurt.

He ran over, dodging bits of buildings and rubble, till he was next to his two commanders. Fig was on the ground, shot in the side, crying out in pain.

"Ty get some of that wood, Epps ask some of the villagers for some blankets" ordered Lennox as he applied pressure to Fig's wound. They hurried and gathered the supplies and with it they improvised a stretcher.

"Burke, Epps, Ty, on three, lift him onto the stretcher" said Lennox once they were done constructing the stretcher.

"Okay Will" they answered.

Will nodded, "Get ready Fig. ..One, two, three" they lifted Fig as gently as they could, putting him on the stretcher. Fig only grunted in pain from the moving, Epps used the radio to call on immediate medical assistance. Soon afterwards the medical helicopter landed. Tyrell prayed that Fig would be alright as the medics lifted him into the helicopter.

The soldiers that had accompanied the helicopter told Lennox that his team was being shipped stateside A.S.A.P. They just had to wait for the helicopter to come back before they could leave. The new soldiers began checking the rest for wounds. Lennox refused to be looked at until the rest of the squad was reviewed. Everyone had more than one cut or bruise on them. A few of the squad had been killed along with Donnelly, and a few of the villagers. The survivors grieved for their lost comrades in silent.

Tyrell sat silently as the medics cleaned a cut across his cheek bone that the medic said would leave a scar. Tyrell just nodded.

The helicopter arrived just as the medics finished checking Lennox over. Tyrell climbed into the helicopter, not entirely trusting it since one of the last helicopter he saw attacked the base.

All the weariness of the past day had caught up with him and before the helicopter was off the ground Tyrell was down for the count.

It seemed like minutes later when he was roughly shaken. "Tyrell were here" said Epps. Tyrell opened his eyes to the side of a carrier jet. He just picked up what was left of his gear and climbed out of the helicopter. He was surprised when they loaded the tail section of the robot into the jet. It was about three feet long, covered in metal plates, the end was tipped in a sharp dagger, stained red with blood.

He shivered inwardly when he looked at the dagger, remembering how it stabbed Donnelly. Tyrell shook his head, trying to get the picture out of his head. If he hadn't thought quick with that grenade, he wouldn't be here. A push from behind reminded him where he was and he loaded walked into the jet. He sat down and strapped himself in as the jet got ready to take off.

As soon as the jet was in the air, Lennox started to study the tail.

It's like a self-regenerating molecular armor." He pulled it under a microscope. "Look at the scorch mark where the sabot round hit. Melted right through."

He examined the bullet marks under a microscope. "The bullets didn't do anything to this things armor. But it appears the saber rounds were able to burn right through it."

"Hey, aren't sabots hot-loaded for, like, a 6,000-degree magnesium burn?" he asks looking at around at every one there.

"Close to it. It melts tank armor" says Epps.

"So this metal skin must react to extreme heat" concluded Lennox.

Suddenly the tail reared up and almost secured Tyrell hand on the examination table.

"Strap it down" yelled Lennox.

Tyrell jumped back as they tried to bind it to the table.

"I thought you said that thing was dead, man!" yelled Tyrell at Lennox.

Lennox ignored the comment. "That thing is wicked" he said as he smiled.

Everyone looked at Lennox like he had a screw loose. But Lennox just shrugged it off, "All right, get on the horn with Northern Command. Tell them that our effective weapon is high-heat sabot rounds. Recommend we load them on all the gunships. Go."

Lennox looked at the metal for a while later, but soon left to find a nice place to find some shut eye. After the Captain left, people slowly trickled away. Tyrell found himself to be the only one left with the tail. He found himself drawn to it, and he slowly reached out his hand to touch it.

As soon as his hand made contact with the foreign metal, his mind exploded with agony. He saw pictures of war, with giant robots, like the one that destroyed the base. One robot was always the same, a tall dark gray one. Every edge on him looked like it could cut you, with glowing red eyes. He saw a giant cube thing, with strange drawings and symbols. Lastly a pair of glasses that looked like his grandfathers.

Suddenly he was back in his own body, which had fallen onto the floor. He gently raised himself up, head still pounding, his hand stung. He looked at his hand, surprised to see a strange glyph on his hand, just like the ones that great grandpa Witwikcy used to draw. But as he watched, it faded away, until it looked like it wasn't there anymore, only a faint outline showed where it was.

Little did Tyrell know was that, the symbol told other Decepticons to kill on sight. A little revenge for blowing the scorpions mouth off. The symbol would be as clear as day to any Cybertrons optics.

Tyrell heaved himself off the ground, every muscle in his body telling him to stop and rest. He stumbled for the cargo hold and sat down by his stuff, he felt jittery, like he had just touched a hot wire and got zapped. He tried to relax, he stretched out and soon fell asleep.

The air was full of explosions, people were screaming. Again he saw the helicopter fire his gun at the helpless victims. He found himself on the ground staring up at the thing, when it changed into the robot from the vision. It grinned cruelly as he brought his foot down on top of Tyrell.

Tyrell jerk awake from the nightmare about the attack at Qatar, drenched in sweat. The screams of the dying men still ringing in his ears.

The jet had begun descending, and the change in pressure was making everyone wake up. Tyrell looked out the window as they taxied down the runway. He was never so happy to see the good USA, or the color green again.

Tyrell couldn't wait to go home and surprised his parents, who were probably worried out of their minds. He picked up his stuff and followed the rest of his friends out of the jet. He could already feel the cool water on his sore muscles. To have actual soap, and then get a good meal.

A voice interrupted Tyrell's plans. "Captain Lennox, I need you and your team to follow me, now!"

The man had already grabbed Lennox's bag and shoved it into the jeep that had brought him.

Tyrell groaned when he saw this, all he wanted was a nice shower.

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Well hope you enjoy this chapter, sorry for it being shorter than the rest of them. I have decided that I will not be updating this until I get at least one review. And next chapter should be good, Sam and Tyrell's touching reunion. So please review, its open to anyone. Tootles.

Redone 11-18-11