Duty and Deceit
Chapter 27
Snare
Terabyte,
Special mission from Lord Megatron. Meet me at Kaon Ridge in half a groon for briefing and deployment.
Skyquake.
The dark armored femme smiled at her friend's messy glyphs on the datapad he'd left on her desk. She wasn't really sure why Skyquake had informed her rather than just getting the usual cryptic memo from the assignment office.
The two-wheeler shrugged and checked her subspace, making sure she had her first aid kit, report chips, surveillance camera buttons, tiny tracking device, spare tracking device... She stopped by the storage room and picked up emergency Energon rations for herself and Skyquake, knowing that he would have forgotten to restock his subspace.
As she approached the main exit, the masked spy nodded her helm in greeting to the Vehicon femme on guard.
"Heya, Spec'!" The femme called cheerily. "'Nother mission?"
"Hello, Velocity." She returned formally. It had always been her personal goal to make a light acquaintance with the Vehicons and she probably knew far more of them than any other non-Vehicon. While they hadn't yet earned a name for themselves, the spy always made note of the designation they wanted to earn. "Yes, new mission. Going to the briefing now."
"Cool..." The purple grounder grinned. "Better'n guard duty. Try an' come back in one piece, yeah? You're the only friendly face us no-names see 'round 'ere."
"I will certainly make the effort." She replied, making her exit.
Transforming, the two-wheeler sped across the flat, black metal ground towards the Kaon Ridge. It only took her about a breem to scale the jagged cliff side. Dusting off her hands, the femme paused a moment to look out over the Ridge. Admiring the view overlooking the capital, she checked her chronometer. Right on time.
The city spires sparkled, though the scars of war marred the outskirts especially. The citadel had a large crater in the side from Zeta Prime's 'Vamparc Titans'; the building had never been completely repaired, instead the walls had been rebuilt following the shape of the crater. A constant reminder of the Autobots' tyranny.
"Beautiful, is it not?"
She looked over to see a blue and gold jet beside her, gazing out over the Ridge. To her right stood Skyquake.
"Dreadwing." The femme greeted stiffly. "I assume that you have come to see Skyquake before we leave? It is nearly time for the briefing; you ought to return to your post now."
The jet scowled at her... or was that just his default expression? "I was about to ask the same of you, Specialist."
He snarled her rank, reminding her of her position. Her mask still up, the young femme made a face at the mech. Too bad he couldn't see it. "Skyquake summoned me for a special mission. Sir."
"You must be mistaken. I am here for the special mission." Dreadwing growled firmly.
Beside them, Skyquake was being unusually quiet as he not-so-discreetly watched them.
Glancing over at her friend, the spy's golden optics narrowed, annoyed suspicion creeping into her voice. "Sky..."
With an equally annoyed tone, Dreadwing growled, "'Quake."
Coming to the same conclusion simultaneously, spy and fighter turned to glare at Skyquake, speaking in unison. "You set us up."
The green jet averted his gaze guiltily, fiddling with the trigger on his gun. His ruby optics were dimmed, signifying mental conversation. "Maybe."
"It won't work." She said stubbornly, mask up - both physically and in character. "I appreciate what you are trying to do, but it will not work."
After a few klicks of stewing in silence, she and Dreadwing both spoke again, "What is the mission and how long will it take?"
Skyquake sent a brief data burst detailing the nature of the mission. It would take at least three orns: nearly a quartex. They were to perform a full sweep for unusual Autobot activity in...
"Sector Zero Six..." The femme whispered, faceplates resembling one who'd just seen the dead rise up. "But... that's Protihex..."
"Sure thing, Boss Bot!" Cliffjumper said cheerily, laughing at his own pun, "I'll make sure the mech's... well-grounded."
"Thank you, Cliffjumper." Optimus said in his usual uptight commander voice. "I am sure Skyquake will appreciate your willingness to share your quarters."
He winked before turning around to leave. "My home will be his home."
The red, horned warrior stepped outside and glanced both ways before heading towards the bridge room. He wiped the grin off his face, instantly replacing it with a scowl. "Slag."
Now he'd be stuck with the mech who killed Prowl. In his quarters. Not to mention that his quarters weren't nearly large enough to comfortably hold himself and a fighter class jet. He'd mentioned larger accommodations to Prime, but his request had been politely ignored.
Prime had called him to his office that morning to 'ask' if he was willing to 'share' his quarters with the mech. As if he could say no to Optimus. A request from Prime was not really optional. Not that he'd be exactly sharing with the jet. Cliffjumper growled angrily. He might as well just give his quarters away. Kiss privacy goodbye.
Letting out a huge sigh as he stomped through the empty corridors, the warrior repeated his previous assessment of the new situation. "Slag."
He would have been fine with Terabyte. There was a nice little alcove in his room, large enough to comfortably provide the two-wheeler with ample space and privacy. And he liked the little femme. She was like having a little sister.
But he wouldn't be able to cram the jet into the alcove. Instead, he would have to give the jet his berth and cram himself into the little alcove. That would be just... lovely.
Cliffjumper put on a wide grin as he waltzed into the bridge room. Terabyte was in her usual spot on the stairs, gazing blankly at the wall in front of her. His lip-plates slid into an honest smile. He wished she wouldn't stay so isolated.
He spun on his heels and headed towards her, sitting down beside her on the steps. "What's up, Short Stuff?"
She looked over at him with wary optics, answering guardedly, "I was merely thinking."
"About?" The red mech asked curiously.
"Smokey." Terabyte replied, her gold optics unreadable, though her voice was wistful.
He cocked an optic ridge in question, "Close friend?"
The femme shook her helm. "Family." He didn't think she was going to be much more forth coming than that, but after a short while she continued sadly, "I promised I'd find him. That was about twelve vorns ago. I failed him."
Cliffjumper didn't answer for a while. He wasn't sure what a mech could say to comfort that feeling of failure. He'd felt it himself enough to know that nothing would really help, but at the same time the attempts of comfort were appreciated.
"Hey... don't give up on him yet okay? Who knows? He may be on his way here as we speak." He said finally, settling for an upbeat optimism.
"Maybe." Terabyte sighed, clearly not considering it as a possibility. "Weren't you supposed to be on patrol with Arcee five minutes ago?"
Accepting her almost-subtle request to shut up and go away, Cliffjumper groaned in mock dismay, standing up. "Ooh... she's gonna kill me for being late... again..."
Terabyte shook her helm fondly at the horned mech as he ran out the exit, already rapidly muttering various versions of an apology. She stood up, physically dusting off her hands, mentally dusting off her troubled thoughts.
The small femme sighed lightly, glancing around the room. The kids were in school still, but the tv was on, a game called 'Zelda' on the screen. Bumblebee was playing, trying to kill a 'Ganondorf'. From what she knew, he was the end game boss.
She watched for a few minutes, until the little human in green died. The yellow scout growled and slammed his remote on the sofa, grumbling and beeping angrily about the game being glitchy and programmed by the inhabitants of a 'zoo'.
Over by the scanner terminals, Ratchet was telling Bulkhead, "-cting a substantial Energon signal in... the Kamchatka Peninsula: Russia."
The green mech nodded, pulling an Energon scanner from his subspace. "An' you want me to check it out, right?"
"Yes." The medic nodded. "Go, find out if the signal is real, and whether the Energon is accessible to us with our very limited resources."
Terabyte ground her denta frustratedly. She didn't really want to go chasing Energon signals that were probably traps with Bulkhead of all mechs, but she needed something to keep her thoughts distracted. She had far too much to think about, none of it incredibly cheerful. Her mind needed a diversion.
The now-Autobot femme stepped towards the ex-Wrecker, her helm bowed respectfully in acknowledgement of her negligible rank as an Autobot. She was just a common soldier as far as rank was concerned. Everyone was above her.
"Sir. I would like to request your permission to accompany you on this mission, sir." She stated.
Bulkhead frowned, clearly not understanding why she'd want to go on such a routine mission. "Uh... why? I mean... it's just a stray En reading."
"Yes sir." Terabyte agreed, her voice neutral. "I am aware of the nature of the mission, sir."
He blinked, cocking one optic ridge incredulously before shrugging. "Sure... could you drop all the 'sir'-ing though?"
Nodding smartly, she replied, "Yes s- Bulkhead."
Turning to the medic he gave a thumbs up. "'Kay Ratch', we'll be back."
The two Autobots walked warily through the deserted ghost town on the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia. They hadn't heard a sound other than the crunch of rubble of decaying buildings under-pede. The brown twilight air was dusty and forlorn. The buildings towered overhead, looming above them like a jeering crowd.
Terabyte scowled, hearing what sounded vaguely like tiny insect pedes, scrabbling on the concrete. She shuddered at the subconscious reminder of Scraplets. Almost at the same time that she heard it, Bulkhead decided to try to start a conversation.
"So, uh, Terabyte. You know, you don't need to be so... uh, stiff." He said awkwardly.
She hissed, holding up one servo to try and silence him. The spy crouched down, long black finials shifting to catch as much sound as possible. "Shhh!"
The green Wrecker seemed to misunderstand her meaning and started stumbling over his words, obviously feeling like he just stuck his pede in his mouth. "Oh! I mean, I don't think you're stiff... just really formal, and you don't have to be so... er, formal. 'Cause you're-"
"Hey, be quiet for a second." Terabyte growled impatiently, the slightest bit of an echo reaching her sensitive finials. He was silent for just about a second before the mech spoke again.
"What's wrong?" Bulkhead looked around a corner, trying to make sure they weren't about to be ambushed. "Didn't mean to-"
"Quiet!" She exclaimed finally, her patience very much suffering from her frustration over her own naivety regarding everything she thought she knew. Regretting yelling at the mech, Terabyte politely explained, "I hear something..."
Listening a little harder in the dead stillness, the two-wheeler corrected herself. "Someone." Rising, she pointed back the way they'd come. "We are being followed, but whoever it is is not appearing on my scanners. Shall I investigate while you continue following the signal, sir?"
Bulkhead frowned at her, though whether at her returned formality or in suspicion Terabyte couldn't tell. Finally the olive Wrecker nodded his approval. "Just come back to my coordinates in about an hour."
She nodded, silently slipping back into the fog from which they'd come. Mini-cannon at the ready, battle blade charged just in case, Terabyte ran a continual scan of her surroundings. Thus the femme continued for nearly half an hour.
Again she heard the scampering scraping sound, this time accompanied by an insectoid silhouette running through the haze ahead.
A Cybertronian-sized spider? So far as she knew, this particular organic planet had only tiny arachnids. So what... was that?
Overcome by an irresistible instinct, Terabyte threw herself down, narrowly missing a large, sticky, gray wad of... stuff. She didn't take the time to investigate the unidentified substance, instead firing several warning shots in the direction of the projectile's origin.
When nothing happened for several astroseconds, an awful feeling sunk into her tanks as she slowly turned around, sincerely hoping she was wrong. No, unfortunately her perimeter sensors never lied.
Directly behind her stood a charcoal and purple spider femme with gold accents, pointing a blaster at her helm. Her build was disturbingly similar to Arcee's. Right before the femme transformed into bipedal mode, Terabyte saw that the femme's pedes folded into the shape of an arachnid's abdomen.
"I don't believe we've met." The other femme said, looking Terabyte over judgmentally, trailing off for the spy to provide a designation. "You would be...?"
Terabyte watched the spider cautiously. "Lieute- Terabyte."
She'd almost forgotten that defecting had wiped her rank. The spider femme noticed her hesitation with a wry smile, almost purring. "Ah... so you're one of the traitors. Lord Megatron really ought to do something about his management. He just can't keep his femmes loyal."
The charcoal and purple femme continued as if she were imparting the most important advice in the galaxy. Her tone was almost sickly sweet. "For that matter, Optimus Prime isn't much better... Mechs are all the same, you see, they simply can't be trusted in places of power. They just lack the... processor power, wouldn't you agree? Now if I were in charge, this pesky little skirmish would be quickly settled."
The spy cocked an optic ridge skeptically, brandishing her weapons. "I do not particularly think so. Who are you?"
The unnamed femme's faceplates dropped the facade of friendliness and now held a cold, distasteful smirk. Apparently that was not the answer she'd wanted. "Oh, no one of importance." She transformed back into the insectoid, sub-spacing the blaster and revealing two blades of her own. "Just a harmless little spider."
With a cackling laugh the spider lunged backwards, shooting more of the sticky substance at Terabyte from her spider-like abdomen, missing twice before catching the spy's cannon arm. She looked down at the stuff now pinning her arm to the cement wall. Organic spider's silk. Disgusting.
Her Energon dagger easily sliced through the material, freeing her arm... Just in time for the spidery femme to cover her in multiple layers of webbing, completely trapping her against the wall. Fighting furiously to maneuver her blade to cut herself free, Terabyte glared at the approaching femme, hiding her slight worry from her golden optics.
The web wasn't breaking fast enough or as easily this time. She couldn't risk using her cannon. The chances of her severely injuring herself by doing so were very high. Maybe as a last resort.
"Pathetic." The purple and charcoal spider spat. "You're quite useless, Gigabyte-"
"It's Terabyte." She interrupted in annoyance.
The spider waved a hand dismissively, hardly acknowledging her. "-My collection already has a Protihexian. I thought I could at least get some fun out of you..."
Terabyte snarled, hoping to stall her long enough for her to get through the last few layers. "Sorry to disappoint."
"I suppose I'll just have to dispose of you then." The strange femme said, not sounding nearly so disappointed as her words suggested. She licked her servo slowly, watching how the spy would react, grinning maliciously.
Reaching forward suddenly, the spider dug her sharp, claw-like servos into Terabyte's mask. The spy bit her glossa to hold back a gasp as the servos were dragged through the mask with a loud metallic screech.
"Although I think I'll just find out what horrors could possibly be hidden under this mask first, sweetie." The femme hissed in her sickeningly fake kindness as she shook the metal shavings from Terabyte's mask off her servos.
"Not. Today. Bug." She ground out as she severed the last of the strands binding her.
With a roar, Terabyte leapt at the spider, slicing two of the skinny legs off, shaking her opponent's balance enough to knock her down. Pressing her mini-cannon into the spider's chassis, the memories of her time under Megatron's control appeared fresh in her mind.
She hesitated.
And that was all the spider needed.
"The Autobots have already made you soft, spy." Laughing cruelly, the now-six-legged femme transformed into her bipedal mode and roughly kicked Terabyte's pedes out of under her.
Landing hard on her aft, Terabyte watched frustratedly as the spider crawled up the walls of the nearest multi-story building, leaping from roof to roof, leaving her helpless to effectively pursue.
Standing up, she made a brief, futile attempt to brush the sticky web from her chassis. Terabyte checked her chronometer, growling lightly as she found that by the time she reached Bulkhead's coordinates she'd be nearly forty-five minutes later than Bulkhead had ordered.
She really hoped he got distracted and lost track of the time.
/Bulkhead, sir. This is Lieu- Terabyte. I located and was engaged by our pursuer and will thus be delayed./ Terabyte commed finally, leaping over a fallen pillar in her path.
The smog hovered around her, making her ventilation system work double time to keep her internals clean of it. The full moon shone brightly above her, seeming to laugh at her.
Made you soft. The spider's voice sneered at her.
You were always too soft... you never could make the hard decisions... Makeshift's voice echoed in her mind condescendingly, reminding her painfully of her mentor's harsh breaking of the bond. Only it didn't seem so sudden or out of character any more... Not after what Sky had said. Protihex will never be properly avenged, because you're too soft to do what's necessary.
Nonetheless his words still stung, even three quartex later.
I don't think you ever really learned what it means to be a Decepticon. Makeshift had snarled shortly before cutting the link. ...I won't be responsible for a weakling.
Involuntarily, she whimpered at the renewed pain in her spark. In spite of all that he'd done, Terabyte had loved Makeshift. The gruff, large Shifter had grown to be like a second father to her. The sire the Wreckers had stolen from her.
His last pleading words rolled into her mind. Terabyte... you can't let them-
She had cut him off bitterly. The last thing she ever told him was, I won't be responsible for a weakling... war is full of collateral damage.
He had been right. She never knew what it was to be a Decepticon. Was he right about the other things too? Was she too soft? She had let the spider get away. She had hesitated.
Terabyte sighed as she trudged along. The hard lines between mercy and weakness were now blurred. She couldn't tell the difference any more. Was mercy weak? Or was weakness merciful?
Shaking her dark helm, Terabyte tried to contact Bulkhead again. /Sir? ETA estimated to be five minutes. Are you in need of assistance?/
No response came.
The two-wheeler scowled and quickened her pace. Either he was just ignoring her, or the mech was in trouble. She suspected the former, but couldn't disregard the possibility of the latter.
Arriving at his last known coordinates, Terabyte found a considerably larger amount of rubble, along with one fewer walls. Charging her weapons, the spy scanned the area for spark signals. One. Autobot.
She made her way towards the signal warily, ready should it prove to be a trap. As soon as she saw the source of the signal, the femme knew there was no trap. Running towards the green frame lying prone in the deserted plaza, Terabyte pulled out her emergency med-kit from subspace, grimly noting the signs of a fight.
Terabyte smirked when she saw him. Bulkhead was dented and knocked around, but the actual physical damage was minimal. He had passed out. Granted, there were several rather large dents and he would be sore for a few days.
The spy shook the mech gently, not wanting to exacerbate the bruises, but not wanting to startle him by being in the middle of repairs when he came to. He didn't respond. She tried again, a little harder this time, to no avail.
/Marco!/ Miko called cheerily through an open radio frequency that the humans used since they lacked internal comm systems. Terabyte frowned lightly, not understanding what some man named Marco had to do with anything. She figured the call was for Bulkhead, so she shook him again with vigor. /Marco!/
Bulkhead's optic shutters fluttered, but the mech didn't wake. Impatiently, Miko roared, /MARCO!/
With a start, the Wrecker bolted upright, groaning as his helm no doubt pounded furiously in protest. "Miko?"
/Nnerrr!/ The girl replied, imitating the sound of a buzzer. Matter of factly, she said, /You're supposed to say, 'Polo'./
The green mech glanced at her questioningly. "Terabyte?"
The spy grinned at Miko's groan. The human girl spoke slowly and deliberately, /You okay Bulk? Y'seem to be getting rather confused over this. It's not hard, really, just say 'Po-Lo' ./
Terabyte decided to intervene so that Bulkhead could take a minute to gather his senses. "Miko, Bulkhead has just regained consciousness. Allow him to pull himself together and remember what happened."
/Whoa. Who managed to get the upper on Bulk?/ The girl sounded honestly shocked, as if it were incomprehensible that her guardian could be beat.
"Not sure..." Terabyte trailed off, looking at Bulkhead curiously. "I was not present."
/Where were you?/ Miko questioned in accusing suspicion.
"About half an hour away," the spy continued before Miko could interrupt, "investigating the possibility of enemy pursuers. On Bulkhead's orders. He can confirm this."
Said mech stood up stiffly with a grunt. "Tell Ratchet to bridge us back, Miko."
Within a few breems, the two Autobots were back at base getting their post-mission checkups from Ratchet. On one side of the med-bay, Bulkhead was getting interrogated. On the other side, Cliffjumper was checking her over again, in spite of the medic's satisfied assessment. Her mask still had claw marks run through it, but those could be welded and buffed out later.
"I'm fine!" Terabyte exclaimed in exasperation. "The medic already checked me."
Finally the red mech seemed to conclude that she really was okay. "Who'd you run into, anyway?"
"She never said her name. And I've never seen her before." The femme explained. "Her armor was charcoal, purple, and gold... Her alt-mode was... like a spider."
"Airachnid." Cliffjumper spat angrily. "She's a merciless killer, collects the heads of different species for fun. She's mostly why 'Cee's so locked down. Killed her first partner right before her optics."
Terabyte looked down thoughtfully. That must be why the other two-wheeler so despised Decepticons. The spy whispered guiltily, "I let her get away."
She continued quietly, her earlier thoughts returning in full strength. "Do you think I am weak?"
He cocked his red helm, considering her question. "Tera..."
She didn't bother to snap at him over the name. Maybe it was just because she was so emotionally exhausted. Maybe it was because she was subconsciously beginning to trust him.
"You're one of the strongest people I know... probably too strong for your own good a lot of times. You always stand firm to what you believe in... even when it's not exactly...uhh..."
"Right?" She suggested helpfully, smiling sadly under her mask.
He grinned for a moment, but she could see right through it. Frowning worriedly, Terabyte saw a glint of hurt in his optics. As if he knew. And she could tell from the mech's expression that he knew she knew he knew.
"Was I the only one who thought I'd fooled you?" She asked finally after he said nothing. The rest of Team Prime was focused on Bulkhead. They appeared to be getting ready to leave the base.
Cliffjumper smiled at her tone and expression, shaking his helm. "I knew it all along, TB. Even from that first day on the Nemesis. The others don't know. I've worked with Con prisoners long enough to see through that ruse. I knew all along."
"Why didn't you tell them?" She snorted. "For that matter, why did you even let me come with you?"
Now the red warrior grinned widely. "I haven't got the faintest idea. Had a hunch."
Her voice was dry with disbelief. "You risked the lives of your whole team and the Prime himself... On a hunch."
"Yup!"
The mech wasn't even slightly perturbed by this. In fact, he seemed rather smug about it. "Why?"
Cliffjumper shrugged nonchalantly. "Oh, I dunno. I like you. I always wanted a little sis'."
Terabyte stared at the mech, processing what he just said. That would explain his protectiveness of her. He viewed her as family.
She was trying to formulate a response when Arcee walked over with a hand on her hip. "Did you hear any of that?"
Both of them glanced at each other. Terabyte shook her helm slowly, whereas Cliffjumper winked at her reassuringly. "Breakdown got the drop on Bulky and then MECH kidnapped him. Now we're gonna go save his sorry aft?"
The spy cocked an optic ridge, surprised that he'd been listening to both conversations. Arcee sounded equally amazed. "Actually... yeah."
The pink and blue two-wheeler continued. "Optimus wants to mount a rescue op. You both better get ready to roll out."
Terabyte nodded deferentially. "I am ready to go as soon as ordered, sir."
Arcee's optics narrowed and a tiny smirk touched her faceplates. "Wait to be deployed in the bridge room."
She could tell that Arcee was testing her, pushing her patience just to see when she'd snap. Terabyte smirked back. She could play that game all orn. "As you command, sir."
Bowing politely, with just enough of an added flare to annoy the other two-wheeler, Terabyte turned and made her exit. Catching sight of the Prime speaking with Ratchet, she headed that direction to report her skirmish with 'Airachnid'.
Across the room, Bulkhead was leaning sulkily against the wall with his arms crossed. Miko seemed to be trying to convince him of something. He didn't appear to be considering her advice.
"Ratchet, I suggest you bring a more substantial med-kit than the standard. With Breakdown in MECH's hands, I fear he will need it." Prime said grimly.
When Ratchet simply nodded and returned to the med-bay to gather his supplies, Terabyte stepped forward and stood with her hands behind her back, feet apart. "Optimus Prime sir..."
"Yes, Terabyte?" He asked in his deep, rich voice.
"I thought you would appreciate a report on my actions in the recent mission sir." She said crisply.
Optimus inclined his helm slightly. "I admit I was curious as to why you were absent when Bulkhead was attacked. I am sure you had valid reason?"
"Yes sir." The spy continued, still standing stiffly to attention. "I was given reason to suspect that we were being followed. With Bulkhead's permission, I set out to investigate and was ambushed by a rogue Decepticon femme."
"Airachnid?"
Terabyte nodded. "Yes sir. Engaging the enemy, I allowed myself to lower my guard for a moment..." She averted her gaze. "She got away. When I reached Bulkhead's coordinates, MECH was already gone."
The Prime hummed, nodding slightly. "I see. Do you think the two incidents could have been linked?"
Reanalyzing what data she had on the two attacks, the Prussian blue and black femme shook her helm. "No sir. I believe that our three parties merely converged for the sole purpose of obtaining the Energon we detected. Requesting permission to complete our initial mission, sir. I have reason to believe that the signal Ratchet found on the Kamchatka Peninsula was in fact genuine."
Optimus frowned, his optics going dim as he commed someone on a private channel. Moments later he looked up, "Bulkhead agrees that the signal is most likely genuine. My only condition is that you take backup. For this mission, I would suggest Bumblebee join you."
"Sir, permission to complete the mission-" Terabyte started, only to be interrupted because at that moment both Bumblebee and Cliffjumper entered the room.
The yellow Praxian cocked one large black optic ridge, whirring curiously. "Suggest I join who for what?"
"-alone..." She finished in a low mutter. Already she knew that that request would now have no hope of being granted.
Cliffjumper ran up, flashing her a cheeky grin. "I can keep our new little bot safe."
The larger scarlet and blue mech shook his helm firmly, his tone clearly leaving no room for argument. "No Cliffjumper. You will take Skyquake on a routine patrol of the state of Washington. You will be teaching the mech about the Autobot way and how to best follow the humans laws, understood?"
The red mech's engine growled low for a split second before he whined, "Optimus! Can't some-"
A single reproving look from the Prime in his general direction made the red mech swallow the other part of his complaint.
Terabyte, not catching the Prime's look, asked, "Sir, mining the Energon we find will be a much easier and more effective task with added assistance from Skyquake and Cliffjumper. Bumblebee and myself are not built for such an undertaking… their larger frames will be much better suited for it, and a larger team would not be inadvisable. Sir."
"You have presented a fair argument Terabyte. Cliffjumper and Skyquake may accompany you and Bumblebee." Optimus conceded. "You are right. We have had enough ambushes this day. Bumblebee, you will be in charge."
"Yes sir!" Bumblebee buzzed, turning smartly on his heel and skating on his tires towards the cargo bay, not at all put out by his exclusion from the rescue operation.
Cliffjumper nodded to her gratefully and followed after the scout happily, glad to have avoided such a boring task as patrolling Washington. The endlessly cold, wet, and dreary state. One of the most organic places on the planet.
Terabyte sighed, transforming into her vehicle mode to catch up with the scout and warrior. She kind of hoped they'd get ambushed again. She despised Energon mining. Especially since the Autobots had such limited resources. And she thought this day couldn't get any worse.