Chapter One

"Okay team, we got a rescue mission coming up! So, we are definitely going to need Ratchet with us." Rodimus was extra peppy after their last mission. The others at the table all groaned at the Prime's excitement. He threw his arms to the sides at his team's lack of enthusiasm. "Oh, come on everyone! They could really need our help!"

"That's right-" Ultra Magnus finally spoke up, quickly speaking over the young Prime before he could say anything else. "They could need our help. If you would actually pay attention, the distress signal was full of static and skipped."

The Prime looked at his captain with a confused squint, "isn't that just from distance? I still think we should lend some help at least. It's why we left Cybertron!"

"I thought finding the knights of Cybertron was why you left Cybertron?" Megatron reminded, though he went unheard as Rodimus started listing out the rescue team. The gray mech smacked his servo on the table, startling everyone to look at him. He cleared his pipes before speaking. "I would have to agree with Ultra Magnus on this one, for all we know they could be pirates or mechs like Deathsaurus and Tarn. Instead of doing a full on rescue, we should send a couple to scout ahead."

Rodimus stared at him blankly before resting a servo on his hip and cocked a grin. "Did that hurt? Agreeing with Magnus? I think Solus Prime could hear the wince in your words."

"Rodimus, I think you should heed their advice? Megatron could be right about it being a possible trap." Drift looked up at his friend with concern visible on his face. "Why don't we send Preceptor and myself? I know a bit about basic repairs and Preceptor will be able get what happened off the ship."

After several hours of the Prime and his captains going back and forth, Ratchet had enough of this, finding these meetings more of a headache than on the original ARK crew. He wished he had a wrench on hand, but after the third meeting and Rodimus earning several large dents, Ultra Magnus banned weapons from the meetings. "Will you all stop this childish behavior? If you were able to get a distress signal, then can we hear it?"

"Oh, right. I forgot about that." The red mech reached in front of him before pressing a button.

"Mayday, Mayday this… I repeat this… on the Night Sparrow. All systems on -gency power! Quick get… pod! Shot down by-"

Ratchet was quickly out of the room, going for the med bay. Drift and Ultra Magnus were quickly after the old medic. He started scrounging, grabbing a small collection of tool boxes. Perceptor rushed in, rifle in hand, he came to stop when he didn't see the medic in a dangerous situation. "Where's the emergency? You are supposed to only hit the emergency frequency when you are in danger. That was our agreement."

"This is an emergency. You're coming with me on this ridiculous rescue mission. Bring the gun." Ratchet subspaced the toolboxes before finally turning to see the two mechs that followed him from the meeting. He looked confused before waving his servos as he pushed past the two mechs. "Don't have time to deal with either of you. Come on Perceptor."

"Wait, Ratchet, can you at least explain what's going on?" Drift asked as they hurried after the medic as he dragged the scientist behind him.

"A friend owned that ship; if it is out here then he was out here for something far bigger than ourselves." The medic looked over his shoulder as his menacing glare went from the ex-Decepticon to the Magnus. "Seeing familiar faces would be better than a mech he had never met and a mech he didn't like. Come on Perceptor."

As the Lost Light came to a slow approach, there floating in the depths four-hundred mega-cycles from the planet Greengard, was a carbon copy of the ARK's shuttlecraft except what should've been a glistening white was an ominous black. The red and blue stripes on the wings were now bright white and orange. One of the wings was completely gone, the other wasn't any better, barely hanging on. There was a huge hole in the side with crates and debris floating from it.

"I'm sorry, Ratchet. I don't think-" Drift stood beside the medic as they looked out the airlock window. Ratchet looked at the demolished ship with his worries about any survivors lowering.

"No, at least one of them has to be online to tell us what in Primus's name happened." Ratchet pulled himself together as they pulled up along the ship. He looked at the scientist as he checked over his equipment. "Non-lethal ammo. If anyone is online, there is a chance they'll be confused."

"I didn't spend time training with the Wreckers to not notice danger when I see it." Perceptor gave the other mech a side glance. He wasn't the same mech that preferred science over fighting, while he still thought with his CPU, Perceptor knew when to fight. "Who's ship was this?"

Ratchet didn't answer until they leapt across the gap between the two ships. Once they landed on the other side. "You know exactly who's ship this is. You helped install the on-board AI."

"I was hoping you would tell me I was seeing things. What were they doing out here? I thought Optimus had them permanently grounded on Cybertron?" Perceptor asked while they looked around, not liking the energon smeared around the hallway and the blast marks scattered around. He looked around before speaking out. "Ship, activate AI hologram, code name: Sparrow."

There was nothing for a few minutes, causing the pair to feel even more doubtful that any of their old allies survived. A flickering ball of light sped from up the hallway before morphing into a standard Iaconian build Cybertronian. "Greet- Program-Pro-Programmer. How can I-I-I assist you?"

"What happened to the ship? Where's the crew at?" Perceptor asked the AI as they continued searching the rooms they passed. "Are you able to divert power to your mainframe?"

"Decep-Decepticon atta-acked-acked-cked us ten-ten-ten meta-cycles before I had enough power to-to-to send a distress signal. That was… four-four-four years ago-go-go. Crew-Crew-Crew killed; their memories up-up-uploaded to black-black-black box as instructed. All avail-able-able-able power diverted to a-a-active cryo-pod-pod-pod." Sparrow informed as it came to a stop when the Autobots stopped in their tracks.

Ratchet grabbed one of the toolboxes from his subspace, "where are the cryopods?"

"B-B-Bridge." Sparrow turned around and led the running mechs through the hall.

When they made it to the bridge, Ratchet almost felt sick at the sight. It wasn't just an attack; it was a full-blown massacre. There were two side control panels with a main center one. On the left side of the bridge was another terminal while on the right was a row of cryopods. Torn apart at the arms was the infiltrator, Punch. He looked like he had been the first victim as his body was near the entrance. Across one of the side consoles was Hound with several holes in his body, as if they were punched in or mini explosives. Ratchet walked around the terminal to find Trailbreaker's visor and mouth guard demolished and wires hanging from his face.

"I can't believe this. How do we even begin to tell Mirage and Bumblebee?" Ratchet shook his helm as he started dragging Trailbreaker and Hound's bodies to Punch's.

"Correction: How do we tell Bumblebee? I just found Mirage, well felt him." Perceptor knelt down next to where a cryopod should have been. Ratchet watched the red mech pull an invisible object away, and the white and blue noble was laying on the floor with smoke rising from his body. The medic joined the other's side as they looked at the occupied cryopod. "And we know who is in the cryopod. Sparrow, what are his vitals?"

Sparrow fizzled in and out of sight as it started scanning the cryopod. "Commander-der-der Jazz on-on-online. Has been in-in-in cryostasis for four-four-four years. Spark and-and-and energy levels critical-al-al." It looked at Ratchet every time its physical form appeared. "Rec-Rec-Recommendations are to initiate-ate-ate unthawing process-ess-ess."

"Right, we are definitely restraining him. Four years in cryo, ship destroyed, crew killed." Ratchet stated the obvious before nodding at the hologram. "Bring Jazz online. Perceptor, you go- Perceptor?" The medic looked around when he noticed the mech was gone.

"Programm-gramm-grammer is in the comm-comm-commander's office to retrieve the-the-the black box-box-box." Sparrow informed. "Systems entering-ting-ting critical. I will be-be-be off-off-offlining soo-oo-oon."

The door of the cryopod slowly released, allowing the freezing air to roll out onto the floor. Ratchet was quick to catch the falling mech as his body slowly unthawed. Jazz groaned, his limbs started twitching as he started to online. Ratchet went to console the special operations commander, but the sound of gun being fired caused the medic to jump with Jazz's body limply falling to the ground. He turned to see Preceptor lowering his rifle. "What was that for? Jazz was barely online!"

"He had a knife to your back. I am also having the Night Sparrow brought onboard." Perceptor went over to the medic, kicking the small blade away from the unconscious mech. Ratchet looked genuinely surprised at the sight of the knife. "You didn't think Jazz of all mechs would go into cryo without a weapon? And with all my free time studying coding, which surprises me that you wouldn't know this about special forces. Their systems are hacked and edited to have quick reaction time."

Ratchet scoffed at his friend's comment, "I'm old."

Perceptor looked at the medic quietly with a small shrug. "At least we are finally admitting it. Rung would be proud of you."

"So, this is the great Autobot special forces." Ratchet looked up with an annoyed grumble when Megatron and Rodimus entered the med bay. First Aid and Ratchet were repairing Trailbreaker while Perceptor was watching over the unconscious Jazz. "They have always been a thorn in my side."

Rodimus went over to Mirage's frame, poking at the grayed frame with an impressed whistle. "I didn't think anyone could stop Mirage."

"Well, whoever or whatever did this to them, they were not prepared for it. Trailbreaker wouldn't have let anyone close to do this to him." Ratchet shook his helm in shame.

"Ratchet, Hound's modification box is missing." First Aid looked up with a worried tone in his words.

Megatron looked at the medic with his arms crossed while Rodimus looked caught off-guard by the comment. "Missing? As in he misplaced it."

"No, as in someone shot in him the back several times then ripped it out of his dying body." A voice, not from Ratchet, answered the Prime's question. Rodimus turned to see Jazz's once prone form now sitting up with Perceptor aiming at his helm. "Oh, stop it my systems aren't even online all the way. Who was the idiot that pulled me out of cryo?"

"That idiot would be me, you should be grateful that we pulled you out. You were in there so long your spark was going to give." Ratchet went over to the visored mech. "How did you even get out of your restraints?"

"Quietly." Jazz rubbed his helm with a groan, "would be grateful if ya put me back in that pod on that ship. And I would be grateful if there wasn't a barrel pointed at me, and that mech not here."

"Still really sluggish. Primus, Perceptor what did you shoot him with?" Ratchet looked over at the scientist with a glare.

"Just two shots, like I explained on the ship he was going to stab you in the back." Perceptor lowered his rifle. "Mechs like Jazz need to be kept a close optic on."

Jazz smacked his servos on the table that he was sitting on, "well been fun being shot and thanks for the repairs, now if you could hand my team over to me and put us back on our ship, that would be great." The visored mech went to the door of the med bay. Perceptor was quick to fire at the saboteur, but Jazz turned his body slightly with his visors darkening. "Now that ain't nice, thought we were friends."

Ratchet and First Aid both sighed when they were both fully aware what was about to happen. Megatron had an idea which was why he pulled the eager to keep the peace, Rodimus, back to his side. "Unless you want to end up like our dear friend Punch over there."

Hearing that coming from Megatron, sent Jazz in a furious state. He reached for the sides of his torso, pulling out two blades like the one he had in his hold while in cryo. He turned, kicking Perceptor away before running for Megatron. Jazz tackled Megatron to the ground with each blade just an inch from his optics. "I hear you call us, my team, your friend and you'll find yourself like my friend Trailbreaker."

"I will keep that in mind. This is the closest you have ever gotten to kill me." Megatron taunted the visored mech.

Jazz cocked a grin as he moved the blades closer, "don't test me." The visored mech jumped up, rejoining Perceptor's side with his arm going over his shoulder. "Come on buddy, let's go fix my ship. I got parties to go crash."

"Your enthusiasm is both exciting as well as terrifying. You have yet to see the Night Sparrow." The sniper reluctantly led the special forces commander out of the med bay. Not because he wanted to, but because it lessened the chances of any actual deaths happening.

Once the pair were gone, Megatron was returning to his peds while Rodimus looked all too happy at what just occurred. "That. Was. Amazing! Jazz was urgh I'm alive, then you, Megatron, was like all let's be friends, and Jazz nearly stabbed you in the optics! The optics!" He spun in front of the unamused mech.

"I am fully aware of what happened, since I was looking up at the blades." Ratchet reached over and bopped both of the mechs upside the helms. Megatron narrowed his optics with a small growl. "What was that for?"

"Antagonizing Jazz, do you have a death wish? Wait, don't answer that." The medic whipped his helm at the pouting Prime. "And you, you are a fragging Prime! Control your damn mechs."

The Prime continued to pout while shielding his helm from anymore attacks. "Just because I'm a Prime now, doesn't mean I control others."

"Clearly you should study up on what you signed up for. Now get out of here both of you before I make you scrub my med bay." Ratchet shooed them out while moving over to the other table where Hound layed. "First Aid, were you able to repair all the injuries?"

"I did. I also found what appears to be pollen embedded in the seams of his armor." First Aid picked up a small glass jar, handing it to the CMO. Ratchet brought it closer with a hum. "When I was examining Mirage, he even had some in his vents."

"Well, we are out of range for any sort of communications with Cybertron. We'll have to wait until then." Ratchet told his assistant as they pushed the four bodies to the back of the med bay, covering their frames for the time being.

As the two medics stood looking at their dead friends in silence, First Aid looked up and broke it. "Ratchet, did you notice something off about Jazz? During the war he at least put up an act of being friends with everyone, but he was willing to even attack Perceptor."

"Well, being in cryostasis for four years only to find your friends killed will unfortunately do things to a mech's mind. I'll have Rung speak with him." Ratchet gave the shorter mech a comforting squeeze on the shoulder.

When the older medic walked off to file paperwork, First Aid looked at the bodies then the small glass jar with concern growing in his spark. "I think there's more to this story than Jazz is letting on."

"And this is the observation deck, not a lot of bots come here so they will be safe." Perceptor led the visored mech into a room with a large window that looked out into the depths of space. Jazz went to the window with the numbness still lingering. "We are unfortunately out of range for Cybertron to hear our communications, so you will have to wait to tell Bumblebee about what happened."

Jazz shook his helm, "just tell him the mission was a success. After you put us back on that ship."

"But he was one of you, he has a right to know about the attack." Perceptor shook his helm in confusion.

"He was, but he wasn't. It's complicated Percy let it go." The monochrome mech leaned against the slender bar that went across the length of the window. "So, Megatron? Optimus is an idiot for letting him come with these pack of misfits."

The sniper mimicked the other's posture as he gave a small shoulder shrug. "Then I guess you'll fit in just fine."

Jazz snorted with a chuckle, "suppose I will."

Sorry about the weird posting. This should be fixed now.