Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers: just my OC's & the plot.
HUNTERS MOON
Chapter 2: Taken
8:25pm, 1000 miles above California:
: Four hundred and closing, we're in range boss! :
: Good, stay on them and duplicate their entry course, we'll crash on top of them if we have to:
: Just so you know? Their heading right for the bot's front door:
: Even better, we can say hi to our old friend Optimus, as soon as we're done eating:
: That's not all, checkout who else is down there...See that ship on the long-range scanner? Look familiar? :
: Oh...Oh this is going to be interesting...:
: Undoubtedly, but unfortunately we can't follow the bugs all the way down; we gotta avoid those satellites in low orbit, so we'll have to go eastwards for a clear landing:
: Whatever: just make sure we land close enough to pick up their trail:
: And what if the bots get in the way? :
: Optimus knows better than to get in my way. After what happened the last time we met; well, let's just say: if any of his whelps feel the need to be heroic, then at least that's dessert taken care of:
At the same time, 1000 miles below on NEST base, two miles west of the Western mountain:
"Where is she?" Deathshot muttered to himself as he checked his chronometer for the third time.
"Who?" Danny asked offhand
"Velocity, she was meant to meet us out here for the exercise"
"She didn't show up?" Tom raised an eyebrow
"Maybe she's busy? She did say she had several errands to run tonight" Morri pointed out
"Hm" the sniper sighed, "Guess we'll have to take a rain-check...Well, we can't stand out here all evening. Where's Ashley and Ravage? ..." he thought aloud as he activated his left optic, and scanned the base way off in the distance; two tiny thermal signatures moving out into the desert, confirmed it was the latter: "Ah good, they've started: you three better get going, and be sure to try and go through the more dense scrub tonight. Got you're visors?"
At that, the three cousins produced from each of their pockets, a visor, with what looked like a hands-free device fused to the right side where the visor's temple tips tucked behind the ear: and a tiny optic-and-scanner-in-one set into the wide-set bridge; a little upgrade courtesy of Moonshine, who had developed the devises so the bots could receive real-time data from their human partners. The cousins slipped them on, activated the wireless signal to their CTG's, and gave a thumbs-up to indicate they were ready to go.
"Good, I'll see you back at the base" Deathshot smiled, before activating his engines, and taking off back to the base.
"Okay, so who goes where tonight?" Morri asked
"Well? Tom took the mountain last time, so it's my turn I guess?" Danny shrugged
"I don't mind, I can head north towards the forty-fifth guard tower" Tom replied
"Okay, then in that case I guess I'll head west towards the reservoir" Morri shrugged
"The reservoir? But that's miles away" Danny pointed out
"So? We've got all night, we're in no hurry: and besides, I got my hiking boots on tonight so I'm good for a long walk" she smiled, "Just be careful and watch out for the coyotes, okay?" she waved goodbye as she set off westwards, towards the northern foot of the mountain.
"Okay, but you're getting breakfast tomorrow!" Tom called after her, before he and Danny went their separate ways, and disappeared out into the thick scrub and scattered boulders.
Meanwhile: several miles west, and ten miles north of the base:
"Rosy? Aren't you gonna put up your tent?" Hailey asked
"Uh, I did" Rosy pointed to, what had been her best (and failed) attempt to put a tent up: rolling her eyes, Hailey dropped what she was doing, and went about correcting the entangled ropes and support posts. "Sorry, I never done this before" she said offhand, feeling rather sheepish. "First time for everything" Hailey smiled, "But it ain't rocket science, okay?"
"Well I want to know, whose bright idea it was to walk all the way out here!" Roxy grumbled as she rubbed her aching feet.
"Uh, all of us?," Jeanie deadpanned, "We all agreed we were gonna do this before we left. You know? Experience the full outdoor's the old fashioned way?"
"Yeah? Well the old fashioned way sucks!" Lizzy whined, "I got blisters in places I never knew I had!"
"Speak for yourself: I got dirt in my rims!" Firefly huffed
"Quit you're whining, just be thankful it wasn't outside Geo's hole" Max interjected, to which most of the other's voiced their agreement, and Roxy and Lizzy promptly dropped the subject. As she crawled out of her tent, Annabelle noticed Sparklestar sitting on a rock looking skyward with a glazed look in her optics, as if she were in some kind of meditative state. Curious, she approached quietly, but as she stepped right next to her, the young sphinx seemed to snap out of her stupor, and blinked in surprise at seeing her there. "Oh, sorry, I didn't sense you there" she smiled sheepishly.
"Sense?" Annabelle tilted her head to one side, before she remembered Crystalwing and her whole family were telepaths.
"Yeah, I was tryin' to talk to Shadow': she's somewhere back on the base, and I can sense she's listening; but she still won't talk back to me" Sparklestar sulked ruefully.
"She's still moody?" the four year old honey-blond asked
"Yeah, has been for a long time now" she explained, "Ever since daddy went to the well of all-sparks, she's been mad at mom; but she won't say why?"
Unsure how to answer that, Annabelle simply replied: "Maybe she's just grumpy 'cuz she got a time out?"
Bemused as to why she said that, Sparklestar looked her straight in the eye, and expanded her mind out to her's; although Annabelle didn't feel or sense anything, Sparklestar skimmed over the surface of her conscious awareness, and could sense she didn't comprehend what she was talking about. She was about to send a telepathic data-burst of memories to her, when her mother's presence loomed over her own consciousness, and gently stopped her: "No sweet-spark: we don't do that to the humans" she heard her mother's voice echoing over the bond. "But Mom, she doesn't understand" Sparklestar pointed out; "I know my darling. But it's not fair to burden her with something she doesn't understand: it will just cause her mental stress and misery. Let her learn in her own time, she'll understand these matters, one day..."
With a frustrated sigh, the young sphinx relented: "...Okay"
"Alright, now have a nice time" Crystalwing smiled, before her end of the bond fell dormant.
"Hey, are you okay?" Annabelle asked, noticing she'd gone into another stupor
"Um? Yeah I'm good, mom just wanted to say hi," Sparklestar waved off before changing the subject: "Hey, you wanna go sneak up on Violet with me?" she offered with a sly twinkle in her optic, and an even cheekier grin. "Definitely" Annabelle smiled with mischievous glee, and together the two youngsters began stalking towards Violet's tent. A little way away, Jeanie was just about done setting up her tent, when she looked over at Max, who had finished pitching up and had wandered a little away from the camp, and was now perched atop a bolder, looking out over the reservoir. Leaving the rest of the party to join her, Jeanie climbed up the bolder and sat down beside her, "Penny for your thoughts?" she asked.
"Nothin much' just enjoying the view..." Max smiled, though she knew she wasn't being honest, and so corrected the latter: "...No. Actually, I was thinking about Lennox"
"What about him?"
"...I don't get it. I stole from him, and he's forgiven me just like that? No way it's that straight forward" Max said offhand sceptically.
"It's not" Jeanie replied frankly, "After what happened up in the national park, and what happened afterwards: he figured you'd been punished enough; there really wasn't more to be said after that. But, I think he's just giving you the opportunity to discover your better side on your own terms. Try and prove himself wrong"
"Prove himself wrong?" Max echoed in confession
"Well? I was talking to Sarah the other day, and she told me Will had been kinda conflicted about the whole parole thing during the first week. On the one hand he didn't trust you to stay on the straight and narrow (given your history), but on the other? ...Well? I think something was bugging him: that if he was wrong? He wouldn't be able to forgive himself" Jeanie explained
"...How'd he figure that out?"
"I dunno, but Sarah mentioned something about a fight going down here on the base between a couple of the bots a while ago, that called the whole 'defectors-switching-sides' thing into question. Apparently it gave him a few things to think about, in terms of who's right it was to say who's capable of being good or bad"
"What?" Max quirked an eyebrow
"I know, it didn't make sense to me either: but you know me, I'm not one to pry" Jeanie sheepishly replied
"True, you are a wuss in that department" Max smiled, "But at least you know how respect that kinda thing, I kinda fall short in that regard" she sighed, to which Jeanie rested a reassuring hand on her shoulder; "You're getting there, you just keep beating yourself up too much to notice. Give yourself a chance, okay?"
Max gave a small smile, but didn't reply as she looked out across the dark sapphire water; "She's right you know?" Chelsea spoke up from where she'd been sitting at the foot of the bolder, on the water-facing side: "Clamming up and cutting yourself off from everyone isn't going to solve anything, it'll just put everything on postponement"
"Easy for you to say, everyone on this base thinks I shouldn't be back here; and maybe their right. After the trouble I caused, I got no right to beg them for forgiveness" Max thought aloud in a flat tone.
"Maybe, it's not-
"AAAIII!" Violet screamed as she flew out of her tent, followed by a giggling Sparklestar, with Annabelle riding her like a horse, and laughing like a maniac; "YOU JERKS!" Violet angrily yelled as she took off after them, chasing them between Skywarp and Bluestreak's legs as they weaved in and out of the scrub.
"How long before she kills them?" Max sighed in a droll tone
"After the beating Anny gave her last week? She knows better than to try and bump her off; worst she'll do is throw another tantrum (for the umpteenth time)" Jeanie drolled, "Just let them settle this and they'll be playing again in no time"
"Just as long as she doesn't go getting any ideas again; it took me ages to get all those spiders out of Violet's bed last week" Chelsea concurred
As the seven year old chased after the two youngsters through the camp, cursing and screaming her lungs out while pushing and shoving everyone aside: Firefly took the opportunity to take advantage of the chaos, and quietly slipped away with Lizzy perched on her shoulder, "So, I was thinking: stink bombs for 'Warp's thrusters, and a potato for Blue's exhaust pipe?" Lizzy smiled with her trademark mischievous grin.
"Mm-hm, sounds great" Firefly replied with a weak smile, to which Lizzy huffed in frustration: "Uhg! Okay, what gives?!"
"Huh?"
"You've been bummed out all day: even when we went dune-hopping together you didn't go as fast as you usually do" her partner in crime pointed out
"Oh, sorry: I just ain't been feelin' in the zone today" Firefly sighed
"Is this about the training? Did Ironhide go grinding your axle again?"
"Mm-hm, and this time he didn't even bother to shout" the green femme shrugged
"Okay, tell me when and where, and I'll get him good with my cherry-stink combo special" Lizzy stated confidently as she cracked her knuckles
"Not that I'm ungrateful, but that won't work (and besides, after the whoopee-cushion thing last week, I think he sussed out that you used the vents to get into his quarters)...No, I don't think this training thing's working out; I failed my basic close-quarter's combat assessment five times now, and I still can't get through even the first round...I'm wondering whether or not to request a transfer to a different trainer, or somethin' like that"
"Well if it ain't workin out for ya' why don't you just strike out and do your own thing?" Lizzy asked, "Because I have to pass basic training so Prime will let me rejoin the team; as it is, I can't even join in the standard weapons and combat training everyone else gets to do" Firefly huffed
"Oh," Lizzy realized, "Can't say I ever really had that problem in school: sometimes, when we got a lesson or teacher who's real boring or just an annoying ass-wipe, I'd skip school for the day. Sure I got a few tardys here and there: but hey, you can't let everyone dictate your life for you, sometimes you just gotta do things your way" she stated bold.
"Hey, I'm all for living my own life as much as the next free sentient being. But for as long as I can remember, the Autobots have been my whole life: I was an army brat sparked and raised on the third Regulon outpost, my parents were both bots, and my sisters are bots. That's a tall family tradition to live up to, and I don't intend to strike out on that"
"Okay, pretty righteous, I can appreciate that," Lizzy nodded, "But seriously? You're not doing yourself any favours by choosing family duty over your own well-being and happiness. I know you care about your sisters an' all, but one day your gonna wake up, and realize just how much you missed out: all for the sake of trying to make other people happy"
"I guess?" Firefly shrugged, "But let me ask you: do you care about your sister's too? I mean, don't get me wrong, you guys are all talking to each other and you haven't fallen out in over two weeks...But, when we're not, you know? Doing stuff together? I kinda get the impression you don't like to be around them"
Lizzy paused for a moment as an unreadable look came over her, and her gaze seemed to wander off towards the horizon, as she spoke what was really on her mind: "...It's not that I don't care (I did go back for Violet after all)...It's just-, I don't see why I should spend my time listening to advice on how to live my life. It's my life you know? Shouldn't I be given the option of being able to do stuff on my own? Is that so much to ask?"
Thinking about it, Firefly sighed, "...No, I guess not..."
"Look, I love them, (well? Except for Max and Chelsea, I'm still waiting to see if they really are legit) but sometimes, I feel like being part of a family is a stone around my neck..."
Meanwhile, back at the base, down in the brig:
"Hey Jet's!" Sam smiled up at the old seeker as he approached the entrance to the brig, pulling a large flat trolly-cart-type contraption with two large cubes of energon sitting atop.
"Evening, and what brings you down here to this 'mausoleum'?" Jetfire drolled as he stood up from his seat to stretch his stiffened wing-joints out.
"Ration time"
"You should've made the cubes smaller, let them know we mean business by depriving them of their privileges" he grumbled
"You'll have to take that up with Ratchet"
"Eh, guess I'll have to bribe him with high-grade again," The old seeker thought aloud, "Hang on a sec' and I'll let you in..." he added as he typed in the clearance codes for the huge reinforced vault-like doors. With a sharp CLANK! the intricate internal locks inside the doors all clicked and whirred as the mechanisms shifted and realigned, and in a few seconds, the doors slowly swung open, and Sam let himself in. "Remember, don't step too near to the field generator's! that static's got a mean bite!" Jetfire added, to which Miles nonchalantly waved off.
It was quiet in the brig tonight, but then, it had been fairly quiet for the past month or so; as Sam approached the only two occupied cells, he stopped just short of where the light was cast down on the floor, so he could remain in the shadows, even though the occupant of the first cell already knew he was there... Cautiously peering around the side of the wall, being careful not to step too near the stasis field generator: Sam saw Coldbore sitting on his recharge birth, his hands sitting on his thighs, and his optic shutter's closed, as if deep in a meditative state.
"Energon's up!" he called to him; the sniper didn't move, or make any acknowledgement that he was there.
"So? Did they send you down cuz' no bots were on ration duty tonight? or simply to see how we'd react?" Longrange mockingly called out from the other cell next door,
Taking a deep breath and keeping his annoyance to himself, Sam pressed a small button next to the opening of the cell: a large tray opened out, and he put the first energon cub in; the tray slammed shut, and the sound of a mechanism could be heard on the other side of the wall paneling. Inside the cell, another tray with the cube inside opened up next to the birth, and in a slow and deliberate manner, Coldbore took the cube and quietly began to drink up it's contents.
"You're welcome?" Sam deliberately said, in a a sarcastic tone: but Coldbore didn't reply, and sat quietly with his ration, as if the human wasn't there.
"He never thanks anyone for anything: even me, despite the fact I'm the only company he's got down here..." Longrange called out. Grabbing the handle of his cart and walking down the huge corridor to the next cell along; Sam's face deadpanned into an unreadable look when he peered into the cell, and saw Longrange lounging on his birth, as if he were floating on a lilo in a pool. "But then, who am I to complain? Right?" the young sniper added mockingly.
As the incident with Thundercracker and Deathshot came back to mind, Sam suppressed the urge to make an equally mocking come-back, and went about putting the cube into the cell in silence.
"...Not talking? That's a shame, I could do with some good gossip: it's been boring as the pit down here" Longrange poked, but Sam didn't reply as he deliberately avoided eye-contact.
"Quiet you!" Jetfire's bellow echoed down the corridor
"And even more annoying with that old heap of junk guarding the door" the young sniper frowned, "At the very least you can humor me with some petty insult"
But Sam still didn't reply: and as he finished up by signing the rations log on the computer terminal at the side of the cell, he took a moment, and stood at the entrance to the cell, deliberately staring the sniper in the eye. Then, after passing a small mocking smirk, walked away with the cart in hand. Frowning in annoyance, Longrange let out a sharp sigh from his vents, somewhat defeated in not being able to have some form of amusement. After Sam left, Jetfire stepped in to conduct the final security check for the evening, and as he approached the cells, Longrange decided to try his luck again...
"So what's with the silent treatment from the meat-sack? Still holding a grudge?" he called out
"Do you really have to ask?" Jetfire replied coldly
"Between trying to figure out their bio-schematics and behaviors, I honestly can't tell..." he smiled in a mockingly charming tone, "Say, when's Prime gonna get around to reviewing my parole?"
"What parole? You nearly killed Morri, and deliberately tried to kill a defector" Jetfire stated, "And even if you were, by sheer dumb luck, let out early; do you really want to push your luck with Deathshot again?"
"...I 'might' have overreacted a little, regarding that particular altercation: but hey, it's oil under the bridge. Besides, he was just lucky that time around..."
Jetfire didn't even want to reply to that, and stayed silent as Longrange changed the subject, "Oh by the way, the Chevy idiots were on duty last night, and mouthing off to that little ground-hugging sniper wannabe; is it true there're some new femmes on the base?"
"There were four new arrivals last month, yes" the seeker stated matter-of-factly
"Flyers?"
"Terrestrial Scouts"
"Huh, and there's me thinking I might get lucky...Is it true there are some new 'pets' running around too?"
Jetfire frowned darkly, "...Yes" he replied cautiously
"Hm, rumor has it they've been causing all sorts of trouble: if that's true, you might wanna get on top of that"
"We've already taken the necessary measures for accommodating them, and it's not for you to speculate on"
"Really? Because, from what I hear, you guys really don't want them here: that they've been such a neusense, that you'd rather chuck them to the cons at the first opportunity, rather than have to put up with them any longer..."
Having a good idea where Longrange was going with this, Jetfire decided he'd been humored enough, and turned to leave the brig, without another word.
"When you start having pest control problems, you know where to find me!" Longrange smiled as the doors slammed shut, and the whole brig fell silent once again.
"Don't rub it in" Coldbore stated coolly
"What? Can't I have a half-decent conversation with someone other than you? You're not exactly the life of the party, you know?" Longrange drolled sarcastically, to which Coldbore ignored.
"If you get too cocky again, it won't be long before the more foolhardy ones start secretly sneaking down during the graveyard shift to take pot-shots at us" he stated
"Great, at least we'll have some stimulation"
"Drawing attention to ourselves is the last thing we need...We didn't let ourselves become incarcerated because you wanted some cheap thrills at the Decepticon seeker's expense; we're in here so we're out of sight, and thus, out of mind..."
Meanwhile, up in the Security Hub:
As he carefully scanned all the monitors, Red Alert's ever vigilant hawk-like optics were waiting for the slightest hint of trouble to spring up, but thus far the evening had been as quiet as the graveyard shift; nothing much out of the ordinary. On one monitor, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were observed trying to bribe Hound with high-grade for something or other in the rec-room. On another, Skids and Mudflap were hiding behind one of Prime's trailer's in the main armory hanger, ogling car magazines (whoever told them car magazines were robot-porn, had obviously succeeded in pranking them); and on another, Frenzy and Rumble were hiding in one of the computer labs, making crank-calls to various telemarketing companies (again). Other than that, not a thing was stirring.
"Jeez Red' you still as paranoid as ever?" Tangostar smirked as she walked in with a tray of energon cubes, and offered each of the security team their break-time refreshment.
"Better to be paranoid than neglectful" Red Alert stated in a flat, yet assertive tone
"That's Red' for ya," Jazz smiled as he took a cube off the tray "Ain't no mech alive who can be more paranoid, (and that's why we love him)"
"Charmed" the security officer drolled
"Still, you got to admit, there's nothing that misses his optics" Novastar chimed in from where she sat across the room.
"Too damn right..." Red Alert stated in a more serious tone, as he trained his optics on one monitor, and leaned in for a closer look at the subject of his attention, "...And speaking of which: what's Blackshot doing in the main terminal interface?"
"Hmmm, let's see..." Novastar replied as she checked the duty roster for the evening, "Majestrix and Prime have her booked in for additional security maintenance-checks in that sector". Satisfied, the security officer nodded "Okay, as you were" and carried on checking all his monitors.
"Is he always like that?" Tangostar asked in a hushed tone. "Yep, pretty much" Jazz smiled, "But like I said: there ain't no one who can to a better job at security than he can; sure he gets a little wound-up at times, but that's just him. Ain't nothin personal" he assured her.
Before Tangostar could reply, an alarm sounded from one of the consoles: without wasting a second, Jazz was typing in commands to the computer, trying to ascertain what it was. "What's up?" the bright orange femme asked in concern. "The orbital proximity scanners, something big just tripped 'em" Jazz replied as he typed in another command to the mainframe, and brought up an image of the scanner and radar map. There, moving at a steady speed, approaching the earth's upper atmosphere, were a cluster of large objects.
"What are those?" she stared at the screen in bemusement.
"Don't know, but we'll soon find out," Jazz replied as he patched a comm through to Prime. : Prime, this is Jazz, come in over? :
: This is Prime receiving you, over:
: We just picked up several large anomalies inbound planet-side, too large and too far away to be the space shuttle, and moving too fast to be a standard bot or con:
: What is the estimated trajectory? :
: Can't say for sure at this point, but it definitely looks like their gonna be touching down somewhere on the North American continent:
: Keep track of them and report any sudden changes. I will join you momentarily, Prime out:
10:29pm, out in the desert:
"*phew* Not far now..." Morri smiled as she paused to get her breath back. A two hour-plus trek through the scrub and bolder fields had brought her to within visual range of the reservoir, though she was another three or so miles from the encampment. Her visor's night-vision mode had lit up the desert in a mix of inferred, thermal imagery, and real-time scanners that pointed out every nook and cranny, animal track and bio-signature, and even the tiniest variations in temperature change and wind direction. So without having to turn her torch on, Morri had wandered through the night, completely shrouded in darkness.
Turning back to scan the way she came, her visor picked up Ashley's heat-signature trotting over a rise some four miles away: "He's really catching up...Chances are, he's already figured out where I'm going" she speculated; "Oh well, might as well see if their making s'mores yet" she thought aloud, as the scent of cooked food drifted on the breeze: prompting her hunger to suggest a quick pit-stop. With a deep breath, she picked up the pace, and headed towards the predominant heat-signatures that indicated the campfire, and the three Autobots sat nearby.
Three or so miles west:
As Skywarp, Bluestreak and Firefly sat on the ground next to the fire, sipping on their energon cubes: their charge's and the rest of the party were making s'mores, and cooking burgers on the hot flat stones that they'd placed next to the flames as a make-shift grill.
"You know, this camping thing's not so bad after all" Allie thought aloud with a smile
"Only cuz we got food cooking" Roxy rolled her eyes
"It is pretty cool, chilling and sleeping with the stars overhead..." Jeanie smiled as she craned her head back to look upwards; following her cue and looking up at the night sky; the girls were amazed by the millions of stars that covered the dark indigo expanse from horizon to horizon. "Whoa, I ain't never seen that many star's before" Allie gasped, "That's 'cuz we live in the city with all that light pollution an' stuff, out here there ain't none of that" Chelsea replied, "It's pretty cool I guess?" Roxy shrugged; "'Is a pweety twinkly!" Jay-jay beamed as she pointed up at the Milky Way.
"Meh, when you've traveled through space enough times you get used to them" Skywarp shrugged. "So where's Cybertron up there?" Max asked, "Yeah! Where'd you guys come from?" Violet concurred enthusiastically, "Yeah! And which direction do you take to get back to Cybertron from here?" Sparklestar asked
"Hmmm, let me think..." Skywarp pondered as he scanned the various constellations, he was about to reply, when his comm opened up on his loud-speakers. :Skywarp? Bluestreak? Firefly? Come in, over: Prime's voice rang out,
: Uh-, Bluestreak here: what's up boss-bot? : The young gunner replied, slightly caught unawares.
: Be advised, there are multiple cybertronian's inbound, approximately thirty miles north-west of your position, beyond the perimeter fence:
: Wha-, new arrivals? When? :
At the same time, in the command center:
: Any time within the next few hours, remain on stand-by and be ready to move if necessary, over: Prime closed comm as he watched the objects moving on the scanner array; by now, his sister, as well as his officers and the human NEST team, had assembled and were watching any and all developments from the main platform of the command center's main terminal deck. Even Colonel Bishop had been summoned in Washington, and was watching the event through a live webcam feed.
: How far off are they now? : The colonel asked concernedly
"Five hundred kilometers and closing, they just missed the international space station by two hundred yards" one of the human technicians replied
: Tell NSC to put a patch through to NASA, and tell them to start prepping a cover story, those astronauts will have been pretty freaked out: Bishop ordered, "Already on it!" Darren called out from where he was working on a nearby terminal. "And I got the TV networks covered too! As far as their concerned we got an impromptu meteor shower goin' down tonight!" Glen called out from another terminal.
: Good work; I'm sorry I have to go, but I'll be on my emergency line if anything happens: Bishop out: the colonel replied before the webcam feed went off line. From where he stood out of the webcam's line of sight, John Briggs frowned in confusion: 'Of all the times to bail out, why?' he couldn't help but think offhand; but he quickly dropped the subject when Wheeljack interrupted...
"Um? Prime, you need to look at this..." The Autobot inventor pointed to the monitor worryingly, everyone leaned in for a closer look: "The cluster has increased their speed exponentially! Their going nearly four times faster than before: at this speed they should be touching Earth within only a matter of minutes!"
"Ironhide, prepare your team and be ready to mobilize. Ultra Magnas, you-"
"Wait! Wait a minute..." Wheeljack interrupted Prime, "The cluster is splitting up into two; eight are now heading towards Nevada, while twenty others are heading-" he suddenly paused in alarm, as he read and re-read through the data, hoping and praying it was incorrect.
"What? What is it?!" Sideswipe pressed him
"Unless I'm reading the data wrong, they're going to land ten miles north of the base, only less than two hundred yards from the edge of the reservoir!"
"But-, isn't that where-
"-THE HUMANS!"
"SHIT! EVERYONE MOVE IT!" Lennox bellowed, and without skipping a beat, the whole room emptied out as bots and humans alike raced towards the base entrance.
At the same time, less than half a mile from the encampment:
Morri was now well within range of the camp, and glad to finally see the welcoming glow of the campfire as it lit up the darkness in a soft orange-amber glow; from this distance, she could see Skywarp, Bluestreak and Firefly, along with all the girls and two younglings. As she watched, she noticed they were all pointing up at something in the sky; looking up, she soon spotted the object of their curiosity...
...Twenty GIGANTIC fireballs came screaming down through the atmosphere, lighting up the cloud cover in a fiery yellowish glow; Morri gasped in alarm, she'd never seen anything so big, coming in that fast before. Looking up and down, back and forth between the objects and the camp, it suddenly clicked that they were going to land right on top of them!
"SHIT!" she cursed as she sprinted for the camp; at the altitude the fireballs were currently at, she estimated she only had minutes to help get them out of range safely, if at all...
About three miles west, Ashley noticed the fireballs coming down too: "Hey, what the hell are those?" he pointed to where they were at in the sky. Activating his long-range scanners, Ravage flinched in alarm, but his worry instantly spiked when he spotted Morri running towards the camp: "Frag it! MOVE!" he growled angrily as he broke into a cheetah-like sprint, with Ashley trying to keep up: "RAVAGE! What is it?!"
"Trouble!" the panther growled, "Just run and try to get to the humans first! Before they land!". "What?! Before who lands?!" Ashley called after him as he flew over the rocky scrub.
The encampment was now in a state of panic, Skywarp and Bluestreak both knew they couldn't outrun the fireballs, much less the impact they would create; so they quickly gathered the humans and the two younglings, and Firefly, as best they could up in their arms (with Firefly hanging from the crook of Skywarp's arm: with him being the larger of the three bots, he was practically five times her own size and weight), and run for the safe side of one of the smaller sloping ridges some five hundred yards away...
"WAIT! LOOK!" Bluestreak shouted as he spotted Morri running towards them, "FRAG IT!-" Skywarp cursed, as he ran back to try and get the girl, who by now was running in a parallel direction towards them.
The intense heat of the fire could now be felt as the twenty flaming masses were seconds away from impact; Bluestreak was less than two hundred yards from the safety of the ridge, and Skywarp had only just snatched up Morri, while simultaneously bending down and over to curl up into the fetal position, protecting the humans and one rookie bot as the giant fireballs struck the rocky ground with all the earth-shattering devastation of a small-scale nuke...
In an instant, an earthquake rocked the desert for miles around, as twenty mushroom-shaped clouds, bathed in flames, lit up the night air and illuminated the entire mountain range for ten miles in either direction. Rocks, boulders, sand and dirt were thrown hundreds of feet into the air, as the whole sky thundered with an all-encompassing BRROOOOOOOM!, and all the scrub within a one click radius was scorched black, as the flames burnt everything to carbon and cinders within less than a second.
As his sensors and circuits spun and throbbed with pain from the initial shock-wave and intense heat, Skywarp felt the strength drop from his limbs as he collapsed: amid the dust and smoke, the strong stench of energon suddenly filled his vents, and a deep growl, hiss and thrum vibrated through his frame. The sound of a transformation cycle could be heard, followed by another, and another, and another, until only the sounds of metal grinding on metal, and armor sliding over ligament cables could be heard all around.
Looking down, the seeker was horrified to see his charges were gone, and as he looked up, he spotted a dust-covered bedraggled Morri; seeming peering out of a thick cloud of black smoke: she just seemed to hang there upside-down, as a huge black mass seemed to loom up from behind her...
"...Help..." was all she could gasp, before a powerful downdraft of wind knocked the seeker back, followed by the sound of-, what could only be described as giant insect wings. Morri screamed as she shot up into the air, seemingly carried off by something enormous. As he tried to reboot his systems, Skywarp stared up at the sky in alarm: twenty behemoth-sized creature-like objects were taking off, but amid the smoke and dust he couldn't make out what they were, and to make matters worse his scanners weren't back online yet; as the creatures took off, climbing higher and higher, the sounds of the humans and younglings screaming could be just vaguely heard over the thundering downdrafts.
At the exact same moment inside the base: Crystalwing and her children shuddered sharply, as if jabbed in the spark-chamber by an electric teaser, before staring at each other in mix of shock and terror: "SPARKLESTAR!" They all cried out simultaneously; their bond quivering as they sensed their youngest member moving further and further away, her panicked cries for help quickly fading as she moved out of their range...
...Down on the lower level of the base, Shadowstar stilled as her family's shock reverberated through her; she was gone, she couldn't sense her little sister's presence anymore: and as her family's panic began to rise, turning into fear and anger, she felt something she hadn't felt in over a lifetime...
Worry
As he tried to get back up, Skywarp saw Deathshot's unmistakable silhouette move in to attack one of the creatures, but as a huge wisp of smoke obscured his view: all the seeker saw was a white flash of muzzle fire, before a loud CLANG! Rang out, and Deathshot dropped to the ground unconscious, with a sizable injury to the side of his helm. Looking back up, the creatures had disappeared from sight into the black smoke and the darkness of the night, though the deep thrumming-buzz of their wings could be heard as they took off at an impossible speed.
Forcing himself to his feet, the seeker staggered in the direction of where Bluestreak and Firefly had been, and sure enough, he found the young gunner unconscious, and half buried under a pile of rocks and boulders. Fearing the worst, he forced his scanners to work, and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw there were no human remains under the rock. Scanning the entire area, the humans were nowhere to be seen, and neither was Firefly...
So if they weren't here, where had they gone? And happened to Morri?
Only one logical, terrifying answer came to mind, and it made Skywarp shudder with dread. The sound of fast-approaching footfalls drew his attention to Ashley and Ravage as they approached the scene: Ashley gasped at the devastation in alarm, while Ravage, simply gazed on with a steeled look in his one optic.
"Wha- ...Wh-what happened?" Ashley finally spat out, but before he could say anything else, the Autobots came rushing towards them, and wasted no time in attending to Deathshot and Bluestreak, while the dazed Skywarp was led away to a clearing by the lake.
As they both surveyed the devastation with a hard critical optic, Optimus Prime and Majestrix's worry both grew into dire concern. "Frag it..." she cursed bitterly, "There's only one kind of Decepticon who leaves this much devastation upon making planet-fall"
"Insecticons" Prime frowned bitterly
"Correct..." Majestrix sighed as she pressed her hand to her brow-plate"...Which means this, is about to turn into a nightmare..."
FYI Majestrix, yeah, we kinda figured that B)
Stay tuned for the search and rescue mission, no doubt some serious shit's about to go down ;) And the Dinobots make their debut B) It's gonna be friggin' awesome.
Much love, and do R&R before leaving please :)