Protectors Of The Young.
Chapter Eight.
Ravage and Laserbeak headed for the Autobot Base and were joined on the way by Bombshell. The little Insecticon chirped a welcome and flew with Laserbeak, settling on Laserbeak's neck as the three approached the Base. It was early morning, and Ravage found a shadow to lurk in, while Laserbeak settled for a slightly more distant perch, in a big tree sufficiently large enough for him to settle himself in. As arranged, they sat and did something they were all very good at. They waited.
Dawn rose, prompting Ravage to move further into the shadow of his rock, while Laserbeak stayed dead still, the foliage of his chosen tree concealing him beautifully. Watching the world awaken around them, they focused intently, eyeing the barely-visible shimmer that marked the presence of the Autobot Base's force-field. If and when it came down, they would move.
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Ironhide was on the gate, and as he had been told, the Lambo Twins were out on early patrol that morning, punishment for a prank Prowl had caught them in the middle of committing. Luckily it was only food-colouring they had used, and although it looked unusual, bottle-green energon tasted the same as the regular stuff.
Ironhide saw them approaching and nodded. "You two should try not to antagonise Prowl," the Weapons Specialist suggested to the red and yellow Lamborghinis. The yellow one only answered with a snort, but the red spoke back.
"Nah, baiting Prowl is way too much fun," he said. This time it was Ironhide's turn to snort.
"Well, if you ask me, Prowl has too much fun thinking up punishments for you two." he said. "I'm dropping the force-field and opening the gates. Stand by."
The two sports cars revved their engines while waiting to go, and as the force-field shimmered out, the two alt-forms jumped forwards.
At the same time, there was movement from the right, and the yellow Lamborghini spotted Ravage headed their way.
"Sideswipe!" shouted the yellow Twin as Ravage jumped over him, and Sideswipe tried to dodge the black cat-mech and failed. A terrible screeching noise sounded as Ravage landed on the hood of the red mech, his claws digging in as he slid, red paint and silver hide curling up from under his claws.
Both Autobots began to transform, and it was at that point that Laserbeak burst from cover, flying in over the Base wall, for Ironhide had not yet got the force-field back on. As Laserbeak glided into the Base and down the corridor, Ironhide commed an alarm as he ran to help Sideswipe, grabbing the cat-mech Ravage by his neck and leg and lifting and throwing him off Sideswipe. The agile Cassette landed and had sprung to a new location by the time Ironhide had brought his cannons to bear. Again he commed the Base.
"Mirage, get help and locate and eject Laserbeak before he causes trouble. Hound, get out here and help us chase off Ravage. Starscream, Seekers, guard your charges." he stated.
Five minutes later, Ravage had been chased off, and Mirage and Cliffjumper got a struggling Laserbeak out of the base, throwing him out as Ironhide raised the force-field.
Laserbeak circled twice and cawed before disappearing, and Ironhide sat back with a feeling of satisfaction. Once again, the Decepticons had been incredibly predictable. They had tried to create a diversion with Ravage to get Laserbeak into the Base unnoticed. The Autobots had dealt with both the diversionary Cassette, and the attempted infiltrator.
Ironhide would have been a lot less smug and confident if he had realised how wrong he was. Both of the invaders had been expecting to be repelled, that had all been part of the plan. The real infiltrator had been carried on Laserbeak's neck, out of sight, and was now hiding in the ventilation ducts.
Bombshell was in the Autobot Base, undetected and unsuspected.
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Again, Bombshell waited before moving too much, and he kept to the ventilation ducts and ceiling crawlspaces. He quickly gained the information he sought: the Autobots had six femmes with them, and Bombshell watched each one for a time before making his move. He also waited until five of the six Seekers on sparkling-duty were recharging with their small wards. He made his choice based on available information relating to maximum leverage, although Soundwave had said he hoped the leverage was not needed.
As Elita-One recharged, Bombshell slipped out of the ventilation-duct in her room and swooped towards her. He fired off a cerebro-shell, which easily hit her just above the optics, in the middle of her forehead. For a moment nothing happened, then she unshuttered her optics.
She rose, her optics blank as Bombshell headed for her neck and crouched down.
"Autobot slave, you will follow my orders. Do not speak to me or reply to anything I say unless I say so. Walk towards the exit of your Base. Try not to arouse suspicion, but if anyone suspects, stun them."
Elita made no sound of reply, but her hand moved to take one of her blasters from its holster.
Tucking the blaster under an arm, she headed for the Base exit.
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Ironhide looked up as Elita came out. He was surprised, for the femmes usually went with a mech, and usually at times when prying optics would not easily discern that they themselves were not mechs. Usually the femmes exited in an alt closely resembling that of a known mech, not in bipedal mode as she was. She walked towards him, arms folded across her chest.
"Elita?" he queried. There was a pause before she replied.
"Ironhide." she acknowledged. "Open the gates. I wish to go out and feel the sunlight upon my hide."
"Are you sure, Elita? What if you are sighted?"
"I will not be. I wish to go out." she said. Once again, there was that odd pause before she spoke, but Ironhide dismissed it. If he remained indoors as much as the femmes did, he'd go crazy. He supposed Elita was feeling penned in.
"Okay, but I'll stay here and watch you, okay?"
"Yes." she agreed.
Ironhide turned to his panel, and opened the gates, and dropped the force-field.
Elita headed for the exit, and as she got outside, Ironhide spotted a dark shape on Elita's neck.
"Elita, your neck, there's something there!" he said in alarm. His optics zoomed in on it as she turned to face him, and he recognised what it was.
"Insecticon! Elita, watch out!" he cried in warning. As his optics refocused, he found himself staring at Elita's gun barrel. As he watched, she fired, and things went black.
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She lowered her gun as Bombshell sent a com on a specific frequency.
"Acid Rain, target acquired, environment safe, come and pick up the cargo."
When he told Acid Rain the environment was safe, he was not only conforming there were no armed Autobots in range. What Acid Rain did not know was that it also meant that no Sparklings were present. Soundwave did not intend to lose the few Seekers he had left.
For a few moments, Elita waited, then as engines sounded, she looked to the skies and raised her arms.
Acid Rain, in bipedal form, swooped down, his own arms outstretched. Elita leaped, and her arms caught his as he grasped her shoulders. He pulled her against him, swiftly adjusting his grip to hold her close in a secure grip. Bombshell sent her an instruction to stay as she was, then flew from her neck to fly alongside Acid Storm. He sent Soundwave a com.
"Bombshell to Soundwave, mission accomplished, we are returning to Base."
Looking at Elita's blank face, Acid Storm looked briefly at Bombshell.
"Well done." he told him. "Soundwave will be well pleased with this catch."
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When they landed, Acid Storm, following instructions from Soundwave, took Elita to the Conehead's old quarters. Although under Bombshell's instruction she could walk, he carried her, to make it clear to those he passed that she was a prisoner and not a trespasser. He did not want her harmed or killed by some trigger-happy fighter with more ammunition than processor power.
It was odd to see how the inside of the Conehead's quarters had changed, for Acid Rain had visited the three Coneheads on more than one occasion during their tenure. Gone were the small knick-knacks one of them - Dirge, as he recalled - had been fond of collecting - small stones, odd pieces of technology. The paint they had kept and their polishing supplies were gone, and the room looked bare and too large for the quiescent femme he held. The large surface the three Seekers had shared had been removed and replaced with a flimsy wooden table, upon which stood two cubes of energon.
He sat Elita on the edge of the large berth that had been left for her, and frisked her for weapons, removing those he could and carefully disarming any built-in weaponry. Opening her abdominal armour he disconnected her comm equipment in three places, to ensure she couldn't even receive or send any messages in ancient Earth Morse code. He picked up one of the cubes of energon and offered it to her. She made no move until Bombshell, who had landed on one of Acid Storm's shoulders, spoke to her.
"Drink that, Autobot slave." he ordered, and she did so, moving jerkily as if she were a mere drone.
"Soundwave says that we now need to back off and you should release her from your control only once the door is locked." Acid Storm said, taking the empty cube from her and walking towards the door. "Soundwave said he'll come along to speak to her once she's had time to vent her fury and realise she has no method of escape."
They both exited, and Acid Storm noticed the extra thickness of the wall that indicated soundproofing measures had been taken and nodded approvingly.
They exited, and locked the door and at a nod from Acid Storm, Bombshell sent the cerebro-shell a command that caused it to burn out and release its control on the Autobot femme. For a moment they heard nothing, but then they could hear, faintly, the femme shouting.
They left, moving on to carry out their other duties.
She was now the sole responsibility of Soundwave.