Duty and Deceit
Chapter 29
Midnight's Madness
"What do you wanna be when you upgrade, Byte?" Smokescreen asked her, holding her hand and swinging it back and forth as they walked home from school.
"Oh, I dunno." She said, shrugging lightly. "We're not going to upgrade for a long time yet... more than a decavorn maybe, more for you."
"Yeah..." The young white Praxian whined, "But haven't you even thought about it?"
"Well, yeah..." She muttered, faceplates heating up in embarrassment, "But Sire thinks it'd be a waste."
Taking a detour through the jade forest, Smokey prodded her arm insistently, "Okay, so what do you wanna be?"
"You know in the holo-vids? The secret agent that always knows what to do, and never panics no matter what's going on? I wanna be like that." She paused, imagining herself like that. Brave, invincible, likeable; breaking enemy lines, stealing information to save whole cities. "How 'bout you?"
"The one that always saves the day?" Her little brother asked excitedly, when she nodded, he pumped his small fist in the air. "Awesome!"
She frowned, watching as the memory twisted out of shape. A grayed, burnt, and mangled Smokescreen glared at her. "Me? Oh, I dunno." He mimicked cruelly. "You left me here to die, and you stopped looking for me. You left me to die..."
The spy lurched upright, vents heaving, vocalizer hoarse, spark pulse accelerated.
Clang!
The sound metal colliding with metal filled her helm, scrambling her already shaken processors. A low groan escaped her and she opened her optics. The infuriated faceplates of Dreadwing filled her vision.
"What in the galaxy is wrong with you, femme!" He roared. A rather large dent stood out proudly on his forehelm. She imagined it probably mirrored the aching spot on her own helm.
Very intelligently, she mumbled, "Huh? Whhaz Ssighwayy?"
The blue and gold jet, standing upright, glared at her, ignoring her question. "Can you not wake from recharge like a normal creature?"
Rubbing the horribly painful dent in her helm, the spy forced her optics into focus so she could glare back at him. "Can you not stop shouting, Stonehelm?"
After almost a klick of trying to glare holes into each other, the spy rose and bowed her helm deferentially. She repeated her previous question, "Where is Commander Skyquake? And what was your reason for hovering so... inconveniently close while I recharged? Sir."
Dreadwing scowled. "Skyquake is performing an aerial sweep of our surroundings. Your recharge involved much moaning and crying, which our commander discovered via my thoughts. He ordered that I wake you. I had not so much as leaned forward to shake you from your fits when you abruptly woke."
She considered this for a moment before nodding smartly. "Very well, sir. Shall we continue on our way?"
Rather than answering, the jet merely transformed and tore off into the sky. Scowling, the femme trudged forward, scanning the landscape for signs of Autobot activity. On the far horizon, she could see the outskirts of her home. They ought to arrive there within the next few rotations. This rotation marked the end of the first orn on field.
Nearly a joor into the rotation, she came into a relatively small obsidian forest. The purple structures towered above her, branches intertwined so thickly they blocked out the weak light of the single sun they now orbited. The Autobots had messed with their planet so thoroughly that the world now wandered slowly from system to system.
She tripped on a pile of... empty ammo shells and shattered Energon cubes? They had been rather hurriedly buried. Examining the area more closely, and running a scan of the area, the spy frowned. Autobots had been here, and had probably left only recently. Which means they detected something... or more probably, they detected her.
/Commander Skyquake, do you read me?/ She commed, charging her weapons and activating her battle systems. She'd probably just walked straight into an ambush. Switching to an open Decepticon frequency, she tried again, /Sky? Commander Dreadwing? I have located signs of Autobot activity at my coordinates. Requesting immediate backup./
Communications must have been blocked. Whoever these Autobots were, they at least knew how to make a rather sophisticated jamming signal…
As she continued cautiously on her way, a glint of metal caught her optics. Approaching the object, she crouched down and picked it up to examine it. A note was tied to a small pointy part on the smooth metal ball. The note was written on a thin, flexible strip of white material she'd only ever read about. It was apparently used like a datapad on primitive organic worlds.
The note read:
Your pede-falls like an electrosaur,
We heard as you approached.
We fled and watched as upon
Our camp a tiny femme encroached.
We hate to be rude
So we left you this gift,
Thought my poetry's rather crude.
Perhaps our gift will give you a lift
And send you to the two mechs above.
To open the gift, do flip over this card
For instructions and details alike.
Don't worry about thanking the bard
For to Sunny and Sides, your expression will suffice.
She scowled at the insulting poem, and ran several full, multi-frequency scans of the sphere. According to the read out, it was perfectly harmless. Nevertheless, she warily turned over the card which, as she now suspected it was designed to do, tore free, bringing the thin spike along with it.
This side of the note read:
Our only suggestion is self-preservation,
Run as fast as you can in any direction,
Though we really doubt it will help.
Her optics widened as she realized what she was holding. Though the annoying poem went on, the spy snarled and flung the sphere - now ticking ominously - as far from her as she could, transforming and driving as fast as she could in the opposite direction. Behind her, she heard the sound of a huge explosion, and when she finally stopped and turned around, the spy saw that the whole surrounding area - within a fifty meter radius of ground zero - of the obsidian forest had been destroyed. Such firepower packed into a small hand-held device… Curious.
Sensing a presence behind her, the femme spun around, weapons ready. The red mech didn't flinch, nor did he have any weapons trained on her. He stood with a casual, relaxed air about him.
"You're faster than you look." The Autobot praised, still showing no signs of aggression.
"Who are you?" She growled, ready to blast the mech to smithereens at the slightest appearance of threat.
"But dumber than we thought." A second, frighteningly cold voice commented from somewhere behind her. Backing up to look at both mechs, she saw that the two were twins. The angry one was golden, better armored, and he also had no weapons in sight; she doubted the lack of weapons would be any sort of disadvantage to him should he attack though.
"Other than the guys that just tried to blow you sky high?" The red one asked, grinning lopsidedly. "The incredibly handsome red one is Sideswipe, namely, me; the grumpy one over there is Sunstreaker."
The names sounded vaguely familiar... optics dimming as she checked her databases, the twin Autobots watched almost eagerly as horror slowly grew on her faceplates. The psychotic, excessively armed war-machines had a record about a mile long. "Oh... scrap..."
Sideswipe grinned happily, seeming increasingly excited. From what she'd read of the mech, his excitement was because he was about tear her apart. Cheerily, he confirmed her horrified assessment, "Yep!"
The spy backed away slowly, armor shrinking down slightly as her dorsal plates connected with a particularly large obsidian pillar. Her mini-cannon twitched as she tried to decide who to shoot first. Doubting that shooting the gold one would do much good, she turned the cannon to the red one. That probably wouldn't help either though. Well, she certainly wasn't going to die a coward.
Shooting Sunstreaker in the face, the small femme ran between the two mechs as fast she could, dodging weapons fire as she ran towards her target, sincerely hoping the plan would work. Running straight towards an obsidian tree, momentum and speed allowed her to run straight up the pillar, which she then shoved off of, flying with her dagger extended towards the approaching red and black Autobot.
She plunged her dagger into his shoulder joint as she landed, successfully knocking the mech to the ground with a roar of pain. Swinging the dagger around, she felt it draw a thin scratch through the golden chest-plate behind her. The roar that escaped Sunstreaker had very little do with pain though. The words 'indignation', 'fury', and 'murder' described the sound much more accurately.
Wrenching her dagger from Sideswipe's shoulder, she tried to duck under the golden fist rapidly approaching her face. Astroseconds too slow, a brilliant streak of gold filled her vision. Maybe that was why he was called Sunstreaker…
Her optics fluttered open. Towering over her stood two fuzzy figures, large and powerful looking. She took in their features slowly, her processors aching and sluggish. Finally her mind spat out the one observation it had arrived at.
Wings.
The figures had wings, so they were friendly. Which meant either she was alive, or she was dead and so were they. They seemed to still be in the exact spot of her battle with the twins though. Sky and Dreadwing must have taken care of them. Either that or they got a call from their commander. Her processors had finally started running properly, and now a colossal helm-ache had settled in.
Dreadwing looked down at her with a strange expression on his face. She had never seen that expression on his face before. "You survived."
She cocked an optic ridge at his surprised tone. He continued grudgingly, "And you effectively stood your ground against the twin Autobot front-liners."
The spy smiled. The strange expression on the blue and gold jet's face was... respect. Somehow, in only almost dying at the hands of the twins, she'd earned his respect. Glancing over, she saw that Skyquake was grinning widely, having arrived at the same conclusion.
Maybe she should have almost-died earlier.
The blue Energon crystal has been discovered by humanity many times, and it had acquired many names and uses over the centuries. For the most part, humans had no idea of the crystals' power, nor of just how much of the crystal there was on the planet.
Energon crystals were most commonly classified in one of three categories: fluorite, calcite, and the common quartz. Occasionally, it would be declared a variety of sapphire, due to the depth of its 'blueness'.
Sparkling in the soft moonlight stood a masterfully carved statue of a triple-changer. It was carved from a huge, solid Energon crystal of the deepest blue. Terabyte stared at it, admiring its beauty while she ran a scan for spark signals. Due to the statue and its unique composition, a simple Energon scan would be pointless.
She scowled when the results came back, causing Bumblebee to look at her in question. "What's wrong?"
"I found him." Terabyte said, disconcerted. She'd recognize that particular spark signature anywhere. It had an odd, fractured resonance. "He's..."
Next to her, Skyquake's engine growled lowly. "Look alive, look up. We have company."
Above them a voice laughed, the pure insanity in the sound sending a collective shiver down the team's struts. "Hallo, *Ahtzobahtz! You should leesten to ze traitor: look alive, vhile you steell can!"
Missiles rained down on the group, scattering them as they fled the impact zone, charging weapons and firing at the jet as he flew around their shots with ease. Skyquake was soon up in the air with him, rising to equal territory. Blitzwing however, in spite of Skyquake's best efforts, still managed to lay heavy fire on those down on the beach side.
Terabyte stood on the soft, warm sand, her engine growling impatiently as she dug furiously through her subspace compartments. "Where are they? I know had some in- Aha! Not where they belonged..."
Loading the tiny button into her mini-cannon, the spy took aim and pulled the trigger. Right as she did so, one of the many missiles screaming down on the land crashed mere inches from her, the blast throwing her through the air, landing her with a painful thud in the wet sand.
Somehow, her shot had hit its target, evidenced both by Blitzwing's now-erratic flight pattern and the message now appearing on her HUD every klick stating his exact location.
She had just made this smug observation when a huge, icy cold wave of salt, water, seaweed, and to her immense disgust, several million microscopic organisms, washed over her. The femme felt it slip under her armor in several places, getting tangled in her gears.
Pulling herself out of the water, Terabyte flared her armor, her disgusted scowl deepening as the action failed to dislodge the sand and dead seaweed. Dodging the laser fire and missiles, she lowered her cannon pulse to level one, completely harmless to Cybertronians, though not incredibly good for the paint.
The Prussian blue two-wheeler examined the tiny tracking device. It was her last one... She'd have to make some more, though Soundwave's were by far the best quality. She loaded it into her cannon, taking aim again. This time her target was not the enemy though; in fact, Skyquake was about as far from being the enemy as a mech could be.
Terabyte fired, her aim just barely hitting its mark. A second set of coordinates appeared on her HUD alongside Blitzwing's. Just in case Skyquake was going to get in trouble with the Autobots over not waiting for an order.
She ran over to where Cliffjumper and Bumblebee were unsuccessfully attempting to get to higher ground. Crouching down beside them behind a large boulder, Terabyte took a few potshots, her frame still dripping and several strands of seaweed hung from her armor.
"Not the best time or place for a bath, Short Stuff!" Cliffjumper hollered, rising to take a shot, but quickly ducking down again to avoid a laser blast. One horn was now smoking.
"Says the mech trying to get his horns manicured." She replied, referring to the partially melted horns.
Bumblebee was busy trying to reload when suddenly the earth shook and a loud crash filled their audials. The scout shouted, "This guy's everywhere!"
Terabyte jumped out of their cover to see what the crash was, hoping it was Blitzwing crash-landing. Checking her coordinate sets, the spy groaned. This was really not promising...
"Sky's been grounded." She yelled over the now-concentrated fire pouring down on them. "We need to get the Con down, now! Try and make him angry!"
/That's suicide!/ Bumblebee commed, his damaged vocalizer not coping with the shouting.
"I've got a theory! Trust me!" She shouted back, firing at Blitzwing. And missing miserably. He was flying too fast to hit.
Cliffjumper blasted in the jet's direction, getting a lucky hit on the nosecone. "How do you expect us to do that?"
Completely misinterpreting the red warrior's meaning, Terabyte felt her spark sink. He was right. They had no reason to trust her. Especially since he knew. Casting him a resigned glance, the two-wheeler transformed.
She raced up the towards the top of the bluff they'd been attempting to climb, pushing her engines to the limit as she dodged Blitzwing's attacks as best she could. The missiles exploded on impact with the ground, throwing dirt and shrapnel down on her in showers. Each impact rocked her frame, threatening to throw her off cousrse. He'd seen her and focused his full attention on the small motorcycle speeding up towards him.
The edge was approaching fast, and the femme ran a few quick calculations, sincerely hoping the probability would turn out better than calculated. She had about a 26.4% chance of success: 73.6% chance that Blitzwing would twitch, causing her to fall to a wet, watery doom in the Arctic Ocean.
Her tires spun out as momentum carried her through the air, the bluff left behind as she soared. Transforming, Terabyte stretched her arms out in front of her, trying desperately not to think about the sheer stupidity of what she'd just done.
But Blitzwing didn't twitch.
She landed with a screech of metal on metal, servos digging into the triple-changer's frame like claws. He flew over land, pulling just about any flight maneuver he could think of to shake her off. Luckily for her, Skyquake had done them all and then some.
"Vhat are you doing, faymme?" He asked, incredulously, spinning into a tight corkscrew as she pulled open a panel on his cockpit. Judging by the tone, he was still being logical. She should be safe for right now. The wind rushed around her, tugging at her frame as they soared.
The silver T-cog lay exposed under the panel she'd just thrown out to the winds. It was different from a normal T-cog, larger and more sophisticated. In short, it was out of her sketchy medical depth. But she could probably still do it...
Terabyte fingered a delicate blue wire, humming thoughtfully. He started flying upside down, making her dig the servos of her other hand deeper into his frame, making sure she didn't lose hold. He seemed a little bit nervous now. "*Ahtzobaht... I demand to know vhat you are doing!"
The unstable mech was on the verge of changing faces on her. If her theory was right, she'd need to be off him when he did. She finally found the wire she was looking for. The one that would manually transform him. But she wasn't sure which form it would transform him to.
Hesitating with her servos gripped around the golden wire, Terabyte watched as the cog started to vibrate. She was too slow. Yanking her hand away from his T-cog, the femme loosened her other hand's death grip on the armor. This would be... challenging.
"Get your leettle shervos out of my frame!" He roared, his frame shifting beneath her.
Pressing her cannon into his cockpit, Terabyte snarled. "Transform and I will fire."
"Vhy you leettle-!" Terabyte charged her cannon, its gentle humming growing louder.
Blitzwing's whole entire frame finally shifted completely, armor plates falling back into place over a military tank, his angered voice laughing as Terabyte felt the wind screaming through her frame as she fell. "You vill not fire, because you vill be too busy dying!"
Despite being in total freefall and having no plan of escaping the rapidly approaching beach, Terabyte laughed. "Tanks are not incredibly aerodynamic. I dare say motorcycles are better fliers."
She heard his faces change in his voice. Logic. "Oh." Crazy. "Hello, vorld! How I long to feel your earthen touch!"
She glared at the rapidly approaching surface. There were just some days that she really hated being a two-wheeler. She was falling through the air like a dead weight, her limbs splayed out to her sides in a vain attempt to fall slower. Her processors spun to find a solution to her dilemma, but all her calculations told her was that she was going to die. The stars twinkled happily in the night's sky.
"Vait a minute," he said in all calmness, transforming back into his jet mode, switching back to insanity and flying circles around her, singing the song from the humans' 'Peter Pan', "I can fly, I can fly, I can fly!"
A warning flashed on her HUD. Altitude: five hundred meters and falling.
Terabyte rolled her optics. That really wasn't incredibly necessary. But her self-preservation codes were programmed to inform her, just in case she somehow failed to notice.
Altitude: two hundred meters and falling. Probability of survival: 12%. Evasive action advised. Altitude: fifty meters and falling.
Evasive action?! How could she take evasive action? The femme offlined her optics, shuttering them tightly, preparing for the inevitable...
She didn't want to die. There was still so much to do! She hadn't found Smokescreen yet... She supposed she never would now. She didn't even know if he still lived. Maybe she'd see him in the Well...
Altitude: twenty meters and stable. Threat aborted.
Strong arms were gently wrapped around her knees and shoulders, having caught her so carefully, she'd hardly even felt it. Slowly she opened and onlined her optics.
Skyquake smirked at her. "I'm not the only one trying for unplanned vacations."
"Nice catch." She replied, vents heaving as she tried to calm her pounding spark. A little weakly, she whispered. "Could you put me down now? I think I'm done with thrill flights for awhile..."
He landed softly, setting her down on slightly shaky pedes. She cocked her helm at him. "I thought you were grounded. I watched you crash."
The large green mech shrugged one minutely bent wing. He didn't quite hide his pained wince. He grinned. "Do you know how hard it would be to pick up all the pieces if I let you land?"
Underneath his teasing tone, Terabyte detected a slight waver. She'd scared him. "I... I'll be more careful, Sky. Promise."
Terabyte's finials flicked upwards. Checking the coordinates, the spy's optics narrowed. She looked over towards the Energon statue, where Cliffjumper and Bumblebee had rendezvoused. Cliffjumper was lying against it, blasting at the purple and tan jet. Bumblebee was standing nearby, starting to cut and collect the Energon to refine back at base. One whole arm was now missing.
"Oh... mech." She muttered. "How dumb can you get?"
Skyquake, not following her gaze, looked somewhat offended. "Uh... sorry?"
/Bumblebee, Cliffjumper. Run!/ She commed urgently. Glancing at Skyquake, she shook her helm, running towards the other two Autobots, cannon blasting at the Decepticon. Three missed, one hit on the wing tip. "Not you, the Autobots."
/Why? We're sticking to the mission, and trying to keep you in one piece while you two lovebirds get some quality time mid-battle. Enjoying the fireworks?/ Cliffjumper sent back cheekily.
Terabyte frowned. She just really didn't get this mech. One moment he's acting like he'd just love to tear Sky apart piece by piece, the next he seemed perfectly okay with him.
/Just shut up and run. Unless of course you want to add some shiny red shrapnel to the display./ She snapped back, pausing in her firing as a small overheat warning flashed on her HUD. /You are leaning against the equivalent of a nuclear bomb, attracting the weapons fire of a trigger happy nut job./
/Oh./ His glyphs took on a more sober slant. /Good point./
As soon as her cannon had cooled down a bit, she fired off a few shots, all going wide this time. Skyquake was beside her, stopping every now and then to let loose his machine gun on the triple-changer.
To her surprise, the red warrior didn't run, like she'd advised. Instead he stopped firing and started examining the statue like it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. After some hesitation, Bumblebee followed suit, careful to hide the missing limb from view. Terabyte smiled, understanding the mech's plan.
Getting close enough to hear, the femme stopped, holding up a hand to stop Skyquake as well. "Watch."
"Hey, Decepti-creep! Truce!" Cliffjumper hollered up at the jet, making him stop mid-air.
He transformed into bipedal mode and landed with his hands on his hips, his blue face with the monocle in play. "Vhat do you vant, *Ahtzobaht?"
"Only to compliment this amazing work of art!" Bumblebee answered swiftly, getting into the role now.
Blitzwing's faces all blurred together for a moment before finalizing on the jack-o-lantern. He giggled. "Ooh! You really zink so?"
"Oh yes," the red mech agreed, nodding emphatically as they both took a few discreet steps away from the statue. "If Cybertron were still light, it would be in our biggest museum. I can just see it now:" He took another step back and framed the statue with his servos, lowering his vocalizer frequency to sound like the pre-war news mechs. "Blitzwing the Great, a grand sculpture made by the handsome mech himself!"
The calm blue face regarded them skeptically. "Eez zis true, Yeellow?" Terabyte watched as Blitzwing's face slowly transitioned from calm to angry. She shuddered slightly. Creepy. "If you dare to lie to me, I vill tear you apart vith my bare hands!" Again his face slowly melted into the slightly glitchy face of insanity. The holo-matter face destabilized into a static-y buzz for a moment. He threw his helm back and cackled. "Feel free to shcream leettle *Ahtzobahts!"
"Um..." The scout's faceplates clearly showed that he too was disturbed by the mech. "O-of course! The statue is very nice, worthy of recognition, definitely."
Terabyte mentally facepalmed, though her mask hid her grimace. Not good. Cliffjumper had a similarly chagrined expression.
Rage returned on the tan and purple triple-changer's face: the red angry face with the split denta. He bellowed, "Very nice?! I spent three vorns creating zis mashterpiece! You vill burn in ze fires of ze eenferno!"
"Whoops."
Cliffjumper grinned, running full speed away from the statue and Blitzwing. Behind him, the triple-changer roared. "*Ahtzobaht cowards!"
"Roll for it, Bee." The red horned mech said, turning around and winking at the fuming Decepticon, "Sorry Blitz, the only mech burning today will be you."
He shot the Energon statue right in the face, igniting the raw crystal. Transforming he shot forwards out of the blue smoke, the explosion following right on his tail. Bumblebee, Terabyte, and Skyquake had already reached a safe distance and watched the deathly beauty of the explosion. From the center of the smoky cloud the howl of jet engines were heard, and soon enough far in the distance shot up the tiny shape of Blitzwing making his escape.
Cliffjumper finally emerged from the smoke and transformed, grinning. His frame was slightly scorched and steaming. All optics on him, the mech bowed with a flourish, his vocalizer frequency still lowered dramatically, "And... Cliffjumper the Magnificent saves the day once again!"
Skyquake leaned in to mutter in her audial, "The word 'egotistical' ringing any bells?"
Terabyte's engine let out a strangled sounding squeak as she vainly tried to contain her laughter. Finally she just let it out, earning her a strange look from Bumblebee. Once she regained her composure, the femme looked up at the tiny sliver of red on the horizon, making a striking display of color against the black sky. A new day would soon be dawning.
"The others should be back at base." Bumblebee said quietly, also gazing at the beginnings of the sunrise. "We better report this to Optimus."
(*Autobot in Cybertronian)
Three Years Previous
The white mech opened his mouth in a gaping yawn as he marched back and forth in front of the huge Cybertanium door. He used to study the intricate glyphs and carvings etched into its massive surface, but by now he'd memorized every single curve and stroke. Really, there was no need to march like this, but he was really bored. Besides, he looked way more intimidating when marching with his gun positioned just like... so.
Of course he wouldn't tell anyone else that.
Except he might have told Terabyte. Smokescreen sighed deeply. She'd promised she'd find him... He hoped she was okay.
Eh, who was he kidding? Shockwave had probably offed her just like everyone else. A blurry memory of her face surfaced in his mind. He missed her. Her sarcasm, her strength, her teasing, her mother-like wisdom - for a youngling.
She had been a good big sister. Smokescreen couldn't have asked for better.
A loud crash echoed through the enormous halls of Iacon. Smokescreen jumped in surprise, charging his hand-held gun and pulling the other one out of subspace. When nothing happened for several more klicks, the guard's shoulders sagged in disappointment.
"Probably just the old coot falling off his berth again..." He muttered, sitting back down next to the door with his back against the corner of the door frame. Since he was a doorwinger, he couldn't exactly lean against the wall itself very comfortably.
This dusty old place never saw any action. The most exciting thing that had ever happened since he got here was when the hydrogen infused Energon came. Which was really awesome until the Elite Guard took it away because it had been shipped to the wrong place. They'd also charged fines for the two cubes he had already celebrated with. The icy cold artificially sweetened Energon was the closest thing to sweet-En Smokescreen had seen since he was a second frame youngling!
He wanted action! He wanted to be out there... in the front lines, blasting 'Cons and proving his metal! Smokescreen's engine roared in anticipation. He would be great out there, one of the Autobots' best mechs, maybe even a leader! A tiny grin spread over his white faceplates. It was his destiny. He just knew it.
The floor rumbled ominously beneath him, sounds of an intense fire fight rattling in the usually silent air. The white and blue mech leapt to his pedes again, transforming into his sleek, streamlined vehicle mode. Blue racing stripes streaked down his white hood and sides, accented with a small amount of red, just like his base mode. With significantly more zeal than perhaps necessary, the vehicle shot down the huge arched halls.
Smokescreen listened with satisfaction as the roar of his engine echoed through the building, his tires squealing as he turned a sharp corner. Under normal circumstances, he wasn't allowed to drive inside the Hall of Records. But surely this whatever-was-going-on called for an exception?
Smoke and dust poured from the entry, and Smokescreen was forced to an abrupt stop as a result of a rather sudden and painful encounter with a marble helm nearly as tall as he was. It was the helm of Solus Prime. The front gate used to be lined with giant statues of the original Thirteen forged by Primus, who was now the planet's core, a.k.a. Vector Sigma.
Though technically, according to Alpha Trion, Vector Sigma was just an artificial life-form created by Primus to act as a sort of mediator to speak and imbue from Primus' life force when required whilst the titan slept. The Well of the Allspark was basically Primus' spark, and when a Cybertronian died, their life force would return to Primus; rejoining the Allspark from which they originally had life.
Well. Smokescreen transformed and gaped at the crumbled gates. None of the statues remained completely unscathed. Finally he regained his senses and held his black guns at the ready, peering through the dust in search of enemies.
Hearing pede-falls behind him, Smokescreen spun around, just barely making out a shadowy figure approaching through the clouds of dust. Moments later there was a massive explosion of light and agony in his helm.
"Well now I know the drill sergeant wasn't joking when he said he could make me see stars..." The young white mech thought blearily. Inky black nothing devoured reality, leaving him in the dreamy void of unconsciousness.