Astrosecond~ .498 seconds, milli-cycle~1 sec, cycle~1 min, breem~ 8.3 minutes, mega-cycle~1 hour, meta-cycle~1\2 hours, solar cycle~1 day, day~ 20 hours, orbital cycle~ 1 month, gigacycle~ 1 year, deca-cycle~10 years, vorn~ 83 years, stellar cycle~400 year, mechanometer~ 1 meter, vun~ hectometer, hic~ 1 kilometer

Thoughts, 'binary code', (alien language), "talking"

Optimus was disturbed by this news. "Are you certain Megatron did not leave anything behind?"

Broadside, though taller than Optimus, stood at attention, "Yes, sir. We watched as the Nemesis entered a spacebridge. We performed a number of sweeps after making contact with the organic ship. We found no detectable Decepticon energy signature."

Optimus has worked with Megatron and has seen how he operates but this was not like him, to abandon a site so readily. "Thank you, Broadside. You may return to the others on standby."

"Sir." With that Broadside walked back to where the other Aerialbots were stationed.

Optimus then turned to Prowl for his thoughts on the matter. "Prowl, do you believe this to be a trap or something more?"

The tactician thought about it for a moment before he spoke his mind, "If it is a trap, then it's a damn good one. I can't think of a reason for Megatron to abandon this site," Prowl then paused when he realized one of the possibilities, "…unless he has moved on to another energy site or a strategic location."

Optimus had feared as much. "Prowl, I want the others ready to leave as soon as possible should news of the Decepticons attacking again be reported."

Prowl nodded, "Yes, Prime. I'll have all essential personal on combat alert status."

It only took Jazz about two minutes to get to the strange building. Jazz skid to his side at the last second and stopped at the foot of the ramp opening his doors, "Here we are, just like I said."

Shepard, Miranda and Samara left Jazz to find the workers as Kasumi stayed inside to chat some more with the Autobot. "So, with everything Legion has told you, have you found anything you like?"

Jazz couldn't help but chuckle, "Well before the war, I use to be tasked with cultural observation and analysis. After taking the time to examine all of the different organic cultures I have to say, my favorite by far are you humans. In particular the music created in your Earthly calendar dates of 1920 to 1980."

Kasumi smiled as she told the Autobot, "I think I'm going to like working with you in particular."

Shepard and his team move to the doors to find it sealed shut. Miranda made a passing observation, "Strong, but I don't see this stopping one of those machines if they really wanted to open it."

Shepard then started to bang on the door in a musical pattern trying to get a response. After a few tries there was a response. Shepard started to shout, "Hello? Can you hear me? We're here to help."

It took a few seconds, but the door finally opened. One of the workers had walked out alone. In hand he had a pistol in hand as he readied himself. The worker asked, "Did you guys run off whoever attacked?"

Shepard couldn't take credit for this one, "Yeah…their gone."

The worker was relieved, "Good. With all those disappearing colonies, I thought we were next."

As Kasumi and Jazz continued to talk to one another, Jazz received a transmission. "Jazz, this is Landmine do you copy?"

"I copy. What's the sitch, Landmine?"

"I've found an organic. It appears to be buried under rubble from this destroyed defense tower. I'm going to try and help it."

Jazz quickly told him, "Just stay in your altmode. We don't want the organic hurting himself. Just move what you can and I'll bring the organics we have to you."

After the radio fell silent Kasumi then asked Jazz, "Are you sure he can do that without his hands?"

Jazz would have smiled if he had his head, but his voice easily portrayed his emotion, "Landmine is a member of my team. He'll be fine. Besides, his front end is a plow and his rear end is a crane. He and the organic will be fine. You should tell Shepard so we can huff it."

Before much information could be learned or given to the worker, Kasumi ran up the stair as she interrupted, "Sorry to butt in, but it seems one of the 'teams' found an injured worked. 'They're' working to move the debris but I think we should go give 'them' a hand."

Shepard understood, and turned back to the foreman, "I'd suggest you and the others to remain inside until we can finish doing a through sweep of the facility. We'll make sure he makes it back here."

The foremen agreed, "Right, wouldn't want any nasty surprises. Alright team, back inside!"

Returning to Jazz, Shepard asked the Autobot, "So what's the situation?"

With everyone inside his vehicle form, the Autobot drove off as he answered, "One of my team found an organic buried under debris. He's currently trying to dig him out using only his altform but his crane has its limit in uses. Hopefully the organic isn't too badly hurt but hands would be better to move things like that. Until we can confirm the organic is unconscious we'd help out more."

With the repairs completed on Vibes, all they could do now was wait. Ratchet told the others medics, "Go on and help the others. I'll stay with Vibes until she comes back online."

Most of the medics moved to the few Autobots who were being monitored by the nursebots. Fixit and Hoist returned to the Ark to tend to the less critically damaged units who were brought back to the ship. Ratchet continued to monitor Vibes' spark as he adjusted some of the repairs to her original settings.

Jazz jumped over a group of pipelines as he arrived to an orange truck with a crane on the back with a shovel on its grill as it lifted metal plates. The truck honked them over, "Jazz!"

Jazz swerved to a stop just before the tip of the truck's shovel. Shepard and the others moved to look at the rubble. Shepard and his team quickly moved to the scene to aid the Autobot. Samara started to use her biotics to move the various pieces as Kasumi, Shepard and Miranda moved pieced by hand. They soon found the worker and he was unconscious. Kasumi shouted to Jazz, "It's OK Jazz, the guys out like a light."

Jazz shouted to the other bot, "Landmine, lets transform!" Jazz quickly transformed to his robot form but the truck first detached from the crane as he transformed. The truck's shovel then broke into three sections, two large pieces and a small third piece. More of the bot started to pull out from underneath that became the legs, and the two pieces of the shovel became his feet. The section that connected to the crane separated and became his arms as his head pulled itself out of the body. Most of the bot was orange as his arm was a shade of light blue and the helmet and the leg before the knee was dark blue. The helmet had a strange split in the visor that made it looked more like protective visor with orange lens. His face was the same shade of red as the Autobot symbol.

Almost immediately after transforming, Landmine continued to move the debris with his hands. "This is better," as he continued to toss fragments over the side. With Jazz and Landmine moving the debris with their hands thing moved rather quickly as the human was fully unearthed from the rubble.

With a clear view, Samara grabbed the worker using her biotics as she moved him and laid him against the flat floor. Miranda started to give him medi-gel to help deal with the pain. After looking him over, Miranda reported, "He doesn't see too badly injured. Though he should receive further medical treatment."

Jazz looked up to Landmine, "Say Landmine, mind getting the worker back to the others?"

Without hesitation, Landmine laid out one of his hands, "Just put him on. I'll get him over there." Shepard and Miranda carried the unconscious worker into the hand of the Autobot. Carefully, Landmine lifted his hand and started to walk off. Jazz sent him the coordinates and shouted back, "Jazz, tell Vibes I'm glad she's still functioning."

Jazz simply gave a thumbs up as Landmine continued to walk away.

After waiting a few cycles, Vibes started to come back online. The moment she did, Vibes pulled herself up as she shouted, "NO!"

Ratchet grabbed her before she jumped up as he tried to calm her, "It's alright Vibes! Your safe now! The Decepticons are gone."

"Ratchet?" Vibes quickly looked around to confirm what he told her as she first sentence soon after was, "What happened? Where did the Decepticons go? Where's Tali'Zorah? And…" finally realizing, "how and why are you here?"

Ratchet scanned her head when he learned what was going on, "It seems the EMP blast erased the last few cycles of your memory before he had to operate. I'll explain everything to you but first we need to put some energon into your systems." As she did, Ratchet radioed Dropshot.

"Hey Cliff, tell them about the time when you missed your shot with a rocket launcher and…" Before Dropshot could continue, he received a call from Ratchet.

"Dropshot, this is Ratchet. Can you hear me?"

Dropshot walked off as he replied, "Go ahead Ratchet. I read you loud and clear." Dropshot stood there for about a minute before finally saying, "Alright Ratchet, we'll be back there soon." He turned his attention back to the others, "I've got good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"

Garrus answered for them, "Why not start with the bad news, as long as the good news is better."

"Bad news is Vibes doesn't remember the last few cycles before they started working on her, but the good news is she's going to make a full recovery after getting a few replacement parts." Dropshot transformed to his truck form and opened his doors, "Hop in and we'll see her ASAP. Sorry Cliff, going to have to tell that story another time."

The small red bot brushed it off, "Don't worry. Besides, in the end I offlined the Con."

Returning to Vibes, some of the other Autobots were already speaking with her. She seemed rather happy as she sat there with so many Autobots around her, "…I'm glad you helped too. I don't know how I was going to get out of this one." They heard Vibes replying to one of the other Autobots.

Dropshot honked to grab all of their attention as he opened his doors. "Come on bots! Clear the way for us to see her."

As the team moved closer, Dropshot shifted back to his robot form before approaching her. Vibes had a big smile on her face the moment she saw them, "Tali'Zorah, I'm glad you're safe. My spark would have been devastated if anything terrible had happened."

Legion then stated, "Creator-Tali'Zorah was never in danger as long as Unit-Vibes remained online."

Jacob looked at all of them and saw that each had suffered different degrees of damage but they didn't seem to care, so long as Vibes was alright. "Never thought I'd see machines seem so human…"

"Nah, this is just how most Autobots are. The few exception being the Dynobots." Dropshot walked over them as he moved to Ratchet, "So doc, when will she be back on her own two feet?"

Ratchet had already thought it through, "After we get her the replacement parts, and finish the readjustments, she should be fit for duty within two mega-cycles."

Dropshot turned about, "Hear that ma'am, you'll be factory new in no time."

Vibes continued to smile as she turned back to the organics, "Is there any work about Shepard and the others."

Overhaul moved through the crowd as he told them, "That small organic in black reported that she found them. Jazz then moved to help them find the workers."

Tali's heart was relieved to hear that Shepard was still safe. Garrus saw her reaction and stopped himself from saying anything to her. Garrus then turned to the Autobots as he suggested, "I don't think it would be a good idea for everyone to stick around when the workers are found. Shouldn't we move this party back into your ship?"

Ratchet agreed, "We'd have to take parts from the ship to fully repair Vibes anyway. I think it would be easier to just move back there."

Before anyone could move, a small white car with a blue strip down its middle drove up screeching to a halt at the crowd's feet. "S'up bot!" The doors opened to revealed Shepard, Kasumi, Miranda and Samara. Tali restrained herself from jumping Shepard again, but she was glad to see him safe. The car transformed as he said, "Yo Vibes, Landmine says hi."

Vibes saluted, "I'll thank him later, sir."

Jazz walked over, "You keep pushing yourself too far again, Vibes."

Vibes smiled, "Like you do, Jazz?"

Jazz started to scratch his face with a finger as he gave a small chuckle, "Well at least you're still safe second."

Kasumi turned to the Autobot, "Vibes is your second?"

Jazz couldn't see the problem, "Course. Bot as skilled as her deserves nothing less. She's already proven herself on multiple occasions."

Ratchet spoke up as he cleared his vocal processor, "Pardon me for interrupting this reunion, but may I suggest that we return to the ship so we can give her the required replacement parts?"

Returning to the shelter, Shepard stopped at the door as he turned to the truck that brought him there. "Are you sure you want to do this? I might be able to ask them for help instead."

Optimus confirmed his resolve, "I do not wish for you to lie for us. We may need the energon but we will not steal it like the Decepticons."

Shepard knocked on the door as the foreman walked out. The foreman asked the Commander, "So, is everything clear?"

"Yes, but I have someone who wants to ask a favor from you guys."

The foreman gladly replied, "For the guys who saved our asses, I'm willing to do almost anything."

Suddenly the truck started to shift is form into a humanoid. The machine stood about twenty-eight feet tall as it knelt down to be eye to eye with the foreman. "I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. You were attacked by our enemies, the Decepticons, and they were after your energy supplies. With the aid of Commander Shepard and his men, we were able to root out all Decepticon forces from your facility. Unfortunately we too require energy to power ourselves. I request your aid to allow us to take some of your energy sources so we may fuel ourselves."

The foreman wasn't expecting this as he gawked in awe of the incredible machine. "Ah…sure…no problem… If you guy really saved us from those decepto-things I don't see any problem sending fuel your way. But just out of curiosity sake, how much are we talking here?"

"We will not take much. A number of your silos was being drained by the Decepticons. We will take what little remains in the ones that were nearly drain of their fuel."

Shepard turned to Optimus, "Are you sure that's enough for everyone?"

"It will suffice for now," sounding unsure himself due to Decepticon greed. The large bot turned back to the foremen, "Thank you for your assistance human. We will try to not involve you or anyone here further in our war."

As the Autobots continued their frivolity with the organics, the Nemesis had reached the Citadel. Hiding within the nebula clouds, the Decepticons had placed several holographic projectors on the ship's hull so they could fake battle damage and 'remove' some of the ship's armament. As per Megatron's plan, all of the Decepticons were in their altforms stationed within the hangar as Soundwave piloted the Nemesis toward the organic filled station. His boombox-like form hid him within the walls of the bridge as he broadcasted a general distress signal across several different communication channels. Soon several small ships flew by as they seemed to act as escorts. A few even tried to make contact, but Soundwave simply ignored them as he allowed them to guide the Nemesis to a docking bay. With the Nemesis secured to the dock arms, Soundwave activated the bridge's blast shields over the windows. Soundwave then proceeded with the next phase of Megatron's plan.