Chapter 3
Location: Earth's Atmosphere, Above Mojave Desert
Weather: Dry; High Cloud Cover
Time: 2:39 PM (PST)
When it came to flying, Slipstream knew she was the best in the base. She would never voice that opinion when in the base, naturally – Lunarflash would take offense and Battleburst would give her the infamous "Shut up and put your thrusters where your vocoder is" glare – but to herself, she knew, just knew, that they knew it too. And when it came to flying in battle, only Battleburst herself surpassed the Stalker. It was why she had been picked to help hold the Decepticons back two out of three raids – the Skyraider's turn had come because Battleburst thought the ebony-ivory femme was feeling left out. Slipstream had to admit the younger flier had done well, except for the part when she had toyed with her green-grey enemy instead of just blowing his helm clean off with her shotgun. It wasn't that she herself didn't enjoy power over her prey, but there was a time and place for such things, and a crazy battlefield was not right in either sense.
Flying was part of her nature, and so was flying in battle. They were highs she could never get enough of, but she didn't say it as such around the others. Lunarflash already was worried about her, needlessly concerned about her constant love for flying in danger zones, and Scatterray – being the medical mech – would want to crawl around her processer to try and figure out what "glitch" made her feel so good when in danger. When she requested permission to Battleburst to fly by this latest strike zone, Slipstream had given the usual explanation: it was a job-well-done, and she wanted to savor it.
As usual, Battleburst had granted that request. Also as usual, she had done so on the condition that Slipstream take Chromebolt with her – a rather unfortunate thing, since the only time the pair got along was on the battlefield.
Why Chromebolt? Why Chromebolt? She inwardly fumed as she lurked inside the sparse cloud cover, the Minicon safely inside her cockpit. Why couldn't Quicksilver come with me, and not with Lunarflash?
It was an empty question, though: Chromebolt was highly critical of Lunarflash's flying style, comparing it to an over-charged hawk (a comment that had almost earned him an EMP blast to the torso courtesy of Slipstream, but Scatterray had talked her out of it), and refused to fly with her unless he had no other choice.
At least Lunarflash was close by, as the jet flew. Maybe they could send code bursts and arrange for a swap of partners eventually, or just join the Skyraider.
Slipstream shoved the processer-drifts aside and focused on what she had come to see. Pictures they had hijacked from Human satellites (which were also the source of the youngest femme's seemingly endless music library) had given her an idea of what to expect at the scene, but it had been taken from space, and her sensors at fifteen thousand Human feet were much more detailed. The facility was a charred shell, most of the roof was gone, plasma scarring was everywhere, and even several hours after they had torched the place, smoke still curled up lazily from a few places, mostly from the section where machines had drilled for Energon deposits, similar to those used on Mars.
What gave her the greatest pleasure, though, were the Decepticons below, sifting through the debris and trying to piece the mystery together. It was almost like gloating, looking down on them, but there was real danger in play as well. One mistimed movement to a bit of cloud cover, one too-alert Vehicon, and their presence could be detected …
"Amazing, isn't it?" she softly asked her passenger, who was safely ensconced in the cockpit of her F-22 Falcon alt-mode.
"Yeah, really interesting," the Minicon replied, but she knew it was just an act. He hated coming back to strike zones, and had only gone because Battleburst had made him chose between Slipstream, Lunarflash, and work overseeing the mining drones. "Can we go now?"
Before the Stalker could point out that they had just arrived ten kliks ago, instinct made her retreat further into the clouds and trigger her cloaking function. Astroseconds later, two Decepticon Seekers roared by, close enough that she could brush them with her servo had Slipstream been in bipedal mode. Both ripped through the high clouds and were gone in an instant, their contrails and exhaust lingering.
"That was close," whispered Chromebolt, sounding slightly subdued.
His companion didn't reply. Every sensor was flared by this close call, and this sort of thing was what she craved. Curiosity also played a part: where were those two going in such a rush, and why? She didn't know, and she would bet every Energon crystal on Mars that Chromebolt didn't, either. "Let's check it out," she suggested, carefully emerging from the cloud cover so her cloaking wouldn't be compromised.
"Let's not," the Minicon wheedled. "Battleburst said for us to stay hidden, remember?"
To Slipstream, his tone sounded goody-goody, and a new wave of irritation crashed in her processer. It took much of her concentration to keep her voice somewhat level as she replied, "We're not gonna attack – we'll just sneak closer and see what's going on. Aren't you curious?"
"… Yes, but …"
Sensing Chromebolt's faltering resolve, Slipstream decided that one last push would sway him. "Are you scared, Chrome? Afraid to be near the 'Cons again?" she asked mockingly.
That got him, as she knew it would. Nothing motivated the Minicon like an insult to his courage and pride. All the same, he sounded rather grumpy as he said, "Come on, let's go."
"Knew you'd come around," she smirked, already accelerating.
XxX
The contrails were still there, so it was fairly easy to track the two fliers. Slipstream knew she only had a few more Earth minutes before her cloaking device turned lost power – it was able to recharge rather quickly, but with such little cloud cover at her disposal, this would have to be a fast recon trip.
While her travel through Scatterray's bridge-tech to this place had initially been a pleasure cruise, without a hitch the protocol had shifted to an information-gathering exercise. Those two Seekers had been trying to get somewhere, and had not been slow about it. Perhaps they were bringing intelligence to their field captains from another region, and whatever got the 'Cons excited would be of interest to Battleburst. When there were no raids to go on, the older femme hardly left the command center, scanning satellites for any data that indicated Decepticon facilities.
"They've stopped," Chromebolt reported. "Stopped and transformed. We'll get to them on the other side of that cloud."
A large, puffy cumulus cloud was hovering just before Slipstream. Perfect, she thought – her cloaking device was down to one Human minute. Without hesitation, she buried herself inside the moisture, but her scanners abruptly detected a new anomaly.
"They're gone. I had their signatures, but then they just disappeared." Puzzled, the Stalker edged forward until she could see the place the two Seeker signals had been – then she froze in horror.
Hovering in mid-air was a Decepticon beacon, and even without scans she knew what its function was: mimicry of two signals.
They had known I was here. And just as the thought crossed her processer, she heard two very unpleasant sounds: the almost shimmery sound of her cloaking device shutting down, and the roars of at least ten sets of jet engines ripping through the skies.
Slipstream wheeled about, looking for an exit – but there was none to be had. Decepticon soldiers, all flight-capable, had she and Chromebolt covered at every side, almost like they had appeared out of thin air, and they were outnumbered five to one at least. All wore the proper insignia, though; none of them had the strange red symbols that Battleburst claimed were the markings for a different kind of 'Con.
One of them – a grey flier; unusual in this predominantly purple bunch – transformed and instantly fired the thrusters on his pedes and back. The Stalker knew him from video captures and data files back at base: Starscream, the Decepticon Sky Commander and their current leader after Megatron's death. If she could disable him at least, there was a chance that the rogue pair could escape.
"Revert," ordered Starscream. Normally Slipstream wouldn't listen to any orders given by a 'Con, but considering the circumstances – she had ten-plus sets of weapons pointed at her, including Thermo Rocket Launchers – she conceded that obeying would get her out of this faster. After all, her shockwave tech wouldn't do much good in alt-mode.
Triggering the function inside her processer, a function Humans would equate with instinctive knowledge, the Stalker transformed. The F-22 Falcon twisted, wings becoming arms and the front splitting apart into her legs. Her helm and torso unfolded – unlike Battleburst and Lunarflash, who had their alt-mode cockpit on the front of their torsos, Slipstream's was on her back. Inside, Chromebolt held still, waiting for her to make her move as she hovered on her thrusters.
She thought she knew what would come next. If they didn't start interrogating her on the spot, they would try to cuff her and take her to the Nemesis, which would prompt her to deploy her shockwave and make an escape. Slipstream expected all these things, but what actually happened surprised her.
As the Decepticons saw her in her bipedal form, surprised murmurs thrummed through the group, and their helms turned so they could lock optics. Even Starscream looked surprised for a moment, before he barked at his troops to remain in their positions. Bewilderment filled her, but Slipstream took care to not let it show. How could they possibly act like they recognized her? Every enemy she had fought in the facilities had been either offlined or too glitched to give an accurate description to the top brass. Could they have missed a datafile, one that had image captures of herself from security cameras?
"Slipstream," Starscream hissed, and a wave of fear filled her. They knew. This was bad, catastrophically so. The collective anonymous status for her and the others was compromised. Slipstream had to get back to Mars to warn the others.
She saw the Vehicons moving in on her – clearly the Stalker had missed some command when immersed in her processer-drifts – and reacted. Flinging out her limbs, Slipstream activated her defensive shockwave, and was gratified to see the whole company be pushed back by the blast of sound and electricity. In the same astrosecond, she cut power to her thrusters, allowing Earth's gravity to take hold and send her and the Minicon plummeting like a pair of suicidal skydivers.
They were past 1300 feet in nanokliks – with her body as it was, metal and falling vertically, they had already hit Earth's terminal velocity – and as Slipstream turned her body so she was falling with her back to the ground, she saw that Starscream and his troops had recovered already. All of them were transformed and raining fire down on her, but only two were almost on her. Both were Energon Seekers, but their colorations were different: one was a rather garish shade of mauve, while the other was chrome-white and red. Slipstream triggered her weaponry functions, and her left servo retracted, allowing her Scatterblaster to take its place. With practiced ease she snapped off the safety function, stabilized the fully-automatic gun with her other servo, and pointed the barrel at the closer of the pair.
Three blasts of tightly-clustered projectiles shot out at the red-chrome flier, and much to her satisfaction, all three slammed into his nosecone. Without missing a beat, Slipstream transferred her sights to the other and let loose with the rest of the clip.
Both mechs veered off as their flight became unstable, and Slipstream seized the current break. Retracting the Scatterblaster and giving Chromebolt a brief warning, the Stalker assumed her alt-mode and fired her engines at precisely 5000 feet above sea level. Inside the cockpit, the Minicon projected a hologram around himself, giving him the appearance of a Human.
"Chromebolt," the Stalker rapped out, "what's the status of the 'Cons? Are they still pursuing?"
"Affirmative. The two you shot are crash-landing near the ruins, but their buddies are still on our afterburners."
"Slaggit," she groaned, even as she barrelrolled out of a missile salvo's way. "Put me in to Scatterray."
"Done."
"Scatterray, this is Slipstream. The 'Cons were waiting for us; we flew into an ambush. We need a bridge out of here, STAT!"
"Can do. Battleburst needs Chromebolt and Quicksilver back at base, but Lunarflash ran into some trouble on her end. I need to finish bridging her back first, but I'm sending the coordinates for your bridge now. It'll open in T-minus two Earth minutes and counting."
Data streamed through the comm. link, and the Stalker mentally pinpointed it as a location in another part of the Mojave. After checking the rear scanners – Starscream and his guard were still in hot pursuit – Slipstream flung herself into a series of aerial acrobatics, making it harder for the enemy to lock on.
"I told you that going after those Seekers was a bad idea," Chromebolt said, and to the stressed-out femme, his voice had an unbelievably smug undertone. Not in the best of moods as it were, Slipstream snapped back, "Would you shut your trap? Get off that high rise and face the facts: you didn't have to take my dare, and you sure as the Pit didn't have to come with me. Save the 'I told you so' for a time when I don't have to worry about getting a missile up my afterburner."
The pair lapsed into a moody silence after that: the Minicon because he was sullen, and the Stalker because she was too busy dodging attacks. The seconds leading up to the bridge opening seemed to stretch on to forever – Slipstream had lost count of how many rockets had been launched at her – but finally Scatterray's voice brought welcome news. "The bridge is opening. Chromebolt, once you and Slipstream are back in base, meet up with Quicksilver and Thunderwing."
"Yes, sir."
For once, Slipstream was glad to be returning to Mars, though she wished she would have better news for the others. During the flight she had regained altitude; now she pointed her nosecone down and poured every bit of her energy into a dive towards the bridging point. She dared to check her scanners for an astrosecond, and to her astonishment, simply abandoning acrobatics and going for pure speed had put several miles between her and the Decepticons.
Something about that niggled in the back of her processer, but she pushed it aside for now: she could see the tell-tale energy waves that surrounded the bridge. Even as more missiles erupted in a last-ditch attempt to knock her out of the sky, the Stalker whipped into the crevasse that held the portal, transformed, and allowed sheer momentum to carry she and her companion back to Mars, letting the portal close behind them.
XxX
The instant the bridge-portal closed, the empty-handed Decepticons landed and transformed, looking to Starscream for orders. The grey-red Seeker, for once, was silent, contemplating the place Slipstream and her Minicon companion had vanished.
"Lord Starscream?" one brave soldier dared to ask. The Sky Commander looked sharply at the mech, and he interpreted it as a signal to remain silent. Collectively, the majority of the Decepticons weren't very pleased that this too-ambitious Energon Seeker was in command again after Megatron's accident, but most kept it to themselves and followed whatever orders that were given to them. They'd all seen what Starscream had done to the Autobot Cliffjumper, and none of them felt like being taken offline in such a manner.
Satisfied by this sign of obedience, the arch-Seeker triggered his comm. link. ::Soundwave, come in.::
::Yes, Lord Starscream.:: The spymaster was using another Vehicon's voice instead of his own – it had been over three Earth years since he'd spoken with his own. Ordinarily this quirk irritated Starscream, but right now he had more important things to be concerned about.
::Has the Hardlock returned yet?::
Soundwave's reply – instead of one voice – was a spliced-together amalgamation of many; Starscream briefly heard himself at times. ::It docked two Earth hours ago. The crew is currently resting.::
Without another word, the Sky Commander shut off the comm. Soundwave had a reputation of knowing everything his associates knew – some said he could read minds – but the grey-plated Seeker was determined to keep him in the dark as much as possible until the spymaster's work was needed.
The current leader of the Decepticons now turned to the troops that had assisted in the ambush. All were relatively high-ranking and trustworthy – in any case, it was unlikely they would willingly disclose any information from this encounter to those not meant to hear about it. Half he now sent back to the ruins, where his subordinate Thundercracker was gathering what information he could about the attack. Thundercracker had already interviewed Swerveback, the mech that had given vital clues to the Autobot's possible partnership with these rogue fliers, and had suggested they lay a trap in the sky in case they came back.
After sending a comlinked message to the other flier to obtain what image and video captures from the skirmish as he could from the group, Starscream addressed to the remaining four. "We return to the Nemesis." Without another word, the five reassumed alt-mode and ripped into the sky.
XxX
Location: Olympus Mons
Weather: Calm
Time: 2:56 PM (Earth PST)
When Slipstream emerged from the bridge into the base, she found herself being welcomed by Lunarflash, whose chassis was covered in so many crumple marks that the Stalker almost said what first came to mind, which had something to do with Earth's moon, a Decepticon master blaster, and the differences between craters and interface panels. Thankfully, self-preservation triumphed over impulse, and Slipstream edited her statement into a more tactful variation. "What happened to you?"
The monochromatic femme shook her helm, a scowl firmly in place. "Do me a favor and don't ask for the whole story until Battleburst and Scatterray finish chewing us out. I nearly got my aft handed to me by a black and yellow dirtkisser."
One of the doors to the hanger opened, framing Quicksilver and Thunderwing. Chromebolt scampered away to join his brothers, leaving Slipstream to stare at the Skyraider. "A mudslogger almost kicked your aft?" she asked, not quite sure if Lunarflash was yanking her chains or not.
"Is there an echo in here?" the younger femme shot back sarcastically. "Yes, he almost beat me!"
"Simmer down, Lune," the olive-violet femme said, worried. Lunarflash hardly ever got angry – if she was snappish, this meant her pride had been stung pretty badly. She hated having to break the news about the encounter to her trinemate, but it would come out eventually, and she might as well do it now, even if she got a lecture relating to the Skyraider's earlier concerns.
"I've got worse news: I was ambushed by Decepticons that looked like Decepticons – the ones that were wearing the right insignia. One of them was Starscream, and when he forced me out of my alt-mode, they recognized me; called me by my designation."
Lunarflash's grouchiness vanished instantly, replaced by fear. "They did?" she asked hoarsely. Slipstream briefly considered re-using the echo comment, then rejected it.
"They did."
The ebony-ivory femme shook her helm; the Stalker braced herself for a lecture but none came. Scatterray's voice came over the intercom system, interrupting whatever Lunarflash might have said. "Lunarflash, Slipstream, Battleburst wants to talk to you two in the communications center."
Both exchanged worried looks – neither of them were looking forward to this. "Listen, Slipstream," the Skyraider said as they started walking, "if, by some miracle, you survive this and I don't, I want my shell scrapped up and buried somewhere on Mars; I don't care about the exact location. Okay?"
"Alright, and if the reverse happens, could you do the same for me?"
"Not a problem."
XxX
A/N: Lunarflash and Slipstream don't have much confidence in their chances of survival, do they? =P I'm thinking of having a flashback moment that details Lunarflash's encounter with Bumblebee (it was Bumblebee she ran into), but I'm not sure if I want to. Any thoughts?
Next chapter: Starscream plots, Raf hacks, and the femmes have a bonding moment.
(BTW: In case my comment earlier wasn't very clear (and it probably wasn't), Battleburst's explanation about the Autobots and their different insignias was that they represent a different branch of the Decepticon army. =))
-Inferna