It was not yet sunrise when the first of what would be a series of alerts was issued on Diego Garcia. To be painfully honest, it wasn't something Ironhide could bring himself to care about much. He would have slagged any rookie who had dared to say the same but Ironhide liked to think that age and experience came with some advantages, and knowing when not to get worked up about a low-level alert was one of them.
He hadn't been into deep recharge when it had sounded and so it hadn't taken much more than a few seconds to bring himself up to speed on the situation – one of the outermost perimeter warnings, three objects approaching in close formation, one thousand miles away and heading directly for the NEST base at close to Mach three.
The Command Trine, of course - he knew as much from experience before that bit of information was officially confirmed - and the fraggers being what they were, it could mean any one of a number of things. The 'Cons knew where their outer perimeter was and if it ended up being nothing more than a brief excursion into enemy air space to trigger an alert or two and drag people out of recharge for harassment's sake, then it wouldn't be the first time.
The fact that they kept up that speed and direction indicated that it might be something else, though - or a very determined attempt at being even more of a pest than usual - and so Ironhide bit back some choice comments about Seekers and resigned himself to a morning spent watching out for the pest of a trine and hoping that at least one of them would make enough of a miscalculation to get within range of their air defences. He doubted it would ever happen, of course - Starscream would not have survived for as long as he had if he wasn't good at what he did, and neither would his trine-mates if they hadn't been able to keep up - but still, the hope was there.
He was up and moving in the command centre by the time the Command Trine hit the five-hundred-mile perimeter and the alert went up a level, but by then everyone important was already aware of the situation. Optimus still treated every one of those alerts with the seriousness that they admittedly deserved and had developed the ability to come out of deep recharge both coherent and functioning long before Ironhide had ever met him for the first time. Arcee had been in charge of what the humans called the 'graveyard shift' and Ratchet, like Ironhide, had long since stopped going into deep recharge unless the situation warranted it. Ironhide was too used to being on the frontlines to be comfortable with deep recharge anymore and Ratchet, he knew, had become used to being brought out of recharge for the simple reason that emergencies couldn't wait until it was more convenient for the medics and hospitals involved. It had been a long time since it had been an issue, a long time since there had been enough Cybertronians left to need more than a few medics, much less multiple hospitals worth of them, but old habits died hard and so did those random bits of programming that your processors would create out of pure necessity.
Their new Seeker was still in recharge but then, Ironhide would have been surprised if he hadn't been. It took a while to adapt to a spark-merge, especially when it happened for the first time. Ironhide had experience and enough survival instincts to keep from letting it show. Will with his lack of experience had no such luck and would be stuck with dealing with it in the traditional ways – time and recharge. Not being given that chance to deal with it would be a pain for everyone involved and experience had taught Ironhide that, too... him, and undoubtedly Ratchet as well, and if their medic hadn't taken steps to ensure Will a proper recharge, then Ironhide would have to wonder about said medic's mental state.
I used medical overrides on the lower-level alerts. He will be brought out of it if they trigger the three-hundred-mile perimeter warning, Ratchet confirmed through their bond. I'm touched by your confidence. I suppose your hours spent in the infirmary haven't been a complete waste.
Ironhide hadn't even been aware that he had transmitted that to anyone and he bit back a sigh as he strengthened those shields around their bond again.
Rattled processors, spark still settling, I know. I'll keep it in mind, he finally said in a half-apology. It did take a while to adapt to a spark-merge, even as old and experienced as he was... even if he had preferred to forget that.
His sensors flared before Ratchet could answer and drew both of their attentions to the entrance of the hangar, knowing perfectly well what they would see.
The command centre always had an air of barely-contained chaos about it, even when they weren't keeping an eye on hostile forces on an intercept course, but it still settled down between one second and the next at the familiar sound of Optimus Prime's approach. The cacophony died completely for a moment and when the silence was broken again, it was with the low sound of voices and a far more orderly feel to the constant hum of background noise.
A Prime-thing or a leader-thing, Ironhide wasn't sure. He hadn't been able to replicate the effect without raising his voice, at least. The same thing, perhaps, that let them all be aware of his presence in the way that they never were with any other mechs they weren't bonded with. The same thing that could make even Decepticons back down at the sound of his voice if he willed it.
Optimus Prime, unaware of those particular thoughts, took stock of the situation with a glance and then focused on Arcee.
"Status?"
"They changed their course marginally nine hundred miles out but their speed remains steady," Arcee responded. "We currently estimate that their closest approach will put them just outside the range of our air defences in fourteen Earth minutes. With the estimated point of near-contact as well as their speed and consistent approach, we doubt it's just another hit-and-run harassment from them, sir. They want something."
In any other situation, Ironhide would have prepared for an attack but in this case he still had his doubts and he wasn't surprised to hear his Prime echo those thoughts out loud.
"A statement, perhaps," Optimus mused. "They know our air defences and they came out second-best the last time they challenged them. Whatever else Starscream might be, stupid or willing to put himself into harm's way for little gain was never on the list. Ratchet?"
He didn't need to elaborate. Ironhide had no doubts about the nature of the question and neither, apparently, did Ratchet, because while a brief pause followed, it felt like hesitation more than confusion to Ironhide.
"It may be a test," Ratchet said. "Their course will put them outside range of our air defences but it might be close enough to make Starscream's connection with Will react. He is their Air Commander."
"Can it be broken?"
"He's too young and they may not consent to it, Optimus. It's a fairly invasive procedure and not without side-effects. Most Autobot Seekers had it done. You knew most of them well. Some barely noticed. Some had... permanent changes."
Ratchet didn't offer any details but their Prime seemed to know what he was referring to as he frowned. Ironhide didn't ask. It wasn't relevant for the moment and if it ever turned out to be, he would ask then instead. It wasn't like he had paid that much attention to the Autobot Seekers to begin with. They had been interesting to look at, as all Seekers were, attractive for their build and abilities, but for the most part not beings he had wanted to spend any more time around than he had to. They might have been Autobot by choice but that didn't mean they had lost any of the arrogance and superior attitude that was so common with the 'Cons and which had always made Ironhide itch to put a hole through their spark when he had been unfortunate enough to have to listen to them.
The three-hundred-mile alert interrupted them, along with the feeling of dawning, reluctant awareness from Will that Ironhide felt through their new, spark-merged bond. He offered a brief update in return before he focused on his surroundings again, late enough to miss the first part of his Prime's decision but familiar enough with him to know the order by spark, anyway.
"-is doubtful this is a genuine attack but we should nonetheless be prepared for every eventuality."
The order was passed on through the proper channels and Ironhide was familiar enough with that kind of situation to know that it would only be a matter of minutes before his own comm-frequencies that connected him with their human troops would flare to life as well. In the unlikely event that it was an attack, air defences would be their main defence and there would be very little for ground-based troops to do but still, it was the principle of it. Megatron was no fool and very capable of thinking up devastating, new attacks, painful experience had taught them that. If nothing else, those alerts kept the base on their toes – not that they truly needed it much, in a war like the one they were currently fighting.
Unlike Will, Ironhide had enough experience and focus to use the strange sort of two-layer perception that came with a spark-merge and he had no qualms about using it now to follow his partner as he came out of recharge and his processors were brought up to proper speed again. The former human did seem to handle everything far better after the conversation with his mate-wife that Ironhide had carefully blocked to offer them at least that bit of privacy but still, Ironhide wasn't about to risk anything. Not with Starscream out there, clearly hunting for something.
The two-hundred-mile alert was triggered at roughly the same time as the NEST team's comm-frequencies started to get active and the low hum of activity in the command centre grew increasingly loud and chaotic again, and not long after Ironhide felt Will move out of his own quarters and towards the main hangar – not entirely back to normal again but coping in his own way, and Ironhide could deal with that. The mercurial moods would take time to get used to but he didn't doubt he would have plenty of future experience to assist him with that. For all that their new Seeker had calmed down, he was still nowhere near level-headed again.
The same two-hundred-mile alert was triggered amidst a growing sound of activity and was followed shortly after by two very clear displays of Starscream's influence that all of them could have done without.
A later examination of the readings would reveal that the Command Trine was one hundred and ninety-four miles from Diego Garcia when Ironhide felt Will freeze in the kind of barely-restrained panic that was becoming uncomfortably familiar to all of them... and that said trine was only three miles closer when a flicker of something from the bond with Ratchet was all the warning that Ironhide got before the medic abruptly blocked it and every bit of his body language told beyond shadow of doubt that something was very, very wrong.
By then Ironhide was already moving to intercept Will before he could do anything stupid, a wall of blind, barely-restrained panic overruling anything else Ironhide might have been able to pick up from the bond - as if Ironhide needed any further reminders of how much easier things had been with just Lennox there and not the Seeker and all its issues along for the ride - but before he or Arcee had time to deal with whatever had happened to Ratchet, their Prime took charge with nothing more than a glance at them.
Optimus' calm "Ratchet?" was the last thing Ironhide heard from that quarter before he stepped back outside and spotted Will instantly, no help from the still-panicked bond needed. Tense body, wings lowered, attention focused on the sky in the direction that Ironhide knew was where Starscream and the rest of the fraggers were approaching from... not good. Not good at all.
He took a moment to decide on a course of action, then swiftly crossed the space between them while letting nothing but feelings of calm support and rock-solid stability show through his own shields. Now was not the time for anger, however much of a pest the 'Con fraggers might be.
One hand on a tense arm, hoping to the Pit and back that any startled reaction would be harmless enough that he could deal with it without causing either of them serious harm, and his own tension lessened slightly when the offending hand wasn't simply torn off in response.
Will?
No verbal response to that but the wings shifted slight, just that bit upwards to give Ironhide hope that some part of him was listening, and then he tried again.
Lennox.
Less careful this time, more the way he would speak to a fellow soldier, and that apparently did the trick as Will's optics shuttered briefly and the body beneath Ironhide's hand shuddered visibly. Some of that raw panic was still lingering but it was somewhat leashed now, at least, and kept under control by sheer stubbornness and the new focus point Ironhide had offered in appearing next to him.
"'Hide." Part question, part hopeful whisper, part instinctive acknowledgement that made Ironhide wonder if Will was aware of his presence at all, and there was something he was missing, he knew that beyond any doubt. Will didn't have much in the way of mental shields when it came to normal bonds, much less a spark-merged one, but he'd still applied every bit of control that he could to keeping Ironhide out of parts of his mind and that was bad sign any way you looked at it. That wasn't the sort of mental breakdown that Ironhide had admittedly known had been an unlikely but still possible result of their merge. It was a deliberate if panicked attempt to keep Ironhide out... or something in.
It took him less than a second to make the decision and settle for acting first and apologising later, and the only warning he got was a sudden flare of panic from Will as he pushed against those shields-
- And then they crumbled and vanished, dismissed by something distinctively not Will, and all Ironhide had time for was a brief, wordless curse before he found himself entangled in the alien feel of a presence that was no longer just his partner.
He was clear-headed enough to know that the fear-panic-submission-defiance he felt came from his partner, not himself, but that didn't stop it from affecting him, anyway, as the alien feel shifted and Ironhide found himself the focus of Starscream's very unwanted attention.
Ironhide.
The voice was at once both smug and vaguely disgusted, like he was some unpleasant bit of slag stuck on a favourite weapon, and it didn't escape Ironhide's attention that it would be one of the only times he had ever actually talked to the fragger, much less had him call him by his actual name. The voice made him itch to put the 'Con out of his misery of an existence but he knew perfectly well that it wasn't an option. Starscream was far out of range and trying anything through... whatever was going on between the fragger and Will was more likely to hurt Will than the 'Con.
Will, he realised... and Ratchet.
Frag it all to the Pit.
Clever deduction. You may be more than just a trained weapon after all, Autobot, Starscream mocked quietly through their bond and Ironhide realised too well that the fragger had picked up on at least part of those thoughts. I am the Air Commander. I hold dominion of all that is Seeker-kin. Will rightfully belongs to me. Your medic still carries Seeker programming and Seeker bonds, for all that he has denounced his proper loyalties and serves the Prime. And you, Autobot... you bonded with the medic and spark-merged with my youngling. You are no less Seeker-kin now than the Hatchet is. Will could have chosen better but perhaps you may not be completely worthless.
Something flared over their connection, demanding submission with enough strength to make Ironhide snarl in response, and Starscream held it for an endless moment before it vanished again and the parting flare of mine-strength-protection-affection-obey from the fragger merged with the harsher sound of the one-hundred-mile perimeter warning and then faded completely.
Ironhide brought up the images from the command centre, watched three glowing, purple markers move in perfect formation as they skimmed by just outside of any air defences that might target them – one fragging mistake was all Ironhide asked from them, and was that really too much to demand – and then the small number in one corner that marked the distance finally stopped its descent and picked back up again as they passed outside of the one-hundred-mile line once more.
Starscream was there again at the edge of his awareness, like some annoying parasite that refused to fragging die but Ironhide forced himself to ignore the presence and the mess of unwanted emotions that came with it to focus solely on Will instead. He'd slammed every mental wall back up that he could at the realisation that Starscream had at least partial access to him and he desperately hoped that it would be enough and that Will had managed the same. Nothing the fragger had said gave any indication that he knew Will was less than a perfectly normal, young Seeker but that didn't mean Ironhide was about to relax. He was in no hurry to find out how Starscream would react to learning that he had been trying to woo away a former human, of all things. Ratchet might go on about the importance of kin and mates but Ironhide wasn't going to believe for a moment that sort of thing would extend to organics as well.
"Will?" His grip tightened slightly on Will's arm and the blue optics seemed to regain a bit of focus even if the pressure from Starscream and the Seeker half's barely-restrained panic remained.
The physical world for the human half and the bonds for the Seeker, Ironhide realised a moment later. Will was a bit out of it but might still be able to be of some use. If nothing else, then to help ground that Seeker bit of his.
"It's about power," Will said – coherent, at least, but clearly still halfway gone in whatever little world he had been wandering around in. "Ratchet's... not going to be happy but he's fine. Can't do anything physically to us. It's just a reminder. I'm a Seeker. You're mine and I'm his. That's the way he sees it, anyway."
A lot more human than Seeker in those words – purely human, in fact, if Ironhide didn't know any better, and a lot closer to the Will he used to know than anything else he had seen since the whole mess started. He felt a flicker of regret at the thought and then pushed it aside to offer a snort that sounded far more confident than he felt.
"In that case, he's got more than a few bolts loose."
Dazed silence greeted those words and this time Ironhide was less gentle when he tightened his grip. "Focus! Snap out of it, Will. Focus on my voice and ignore the glitch. You're a Seeker; being annoying pests and ignoring people is what your kind do best."
The echo of amusement from Starscream-
- Is that any way to speak to your bonded, ground-pounder?-
- and then Ironhide felt the wall of panic through their bond begin to retreat, bit by little bit to leave both his and Will's processors a lot clearer. Theirs, and possibly Ratchet's as well.
On a whim, he focused on a familiar comm-frequency.
"Arcee?"
He didn't need to clarify. Arcee knew perfectly well what he was referring to and responded accordingly.
"Ratchet appears to have snapped out of it again. Optimus spoke with him. I'm not sure of what, but it appears to have worked. Will?"
Suffering from multiple personalities and a bad case of Starscream probably wouldn't go over well as an explanation so Ironhide settled for a more neutral response.
"Improving. I will contact you when it's under control."
He'd barely cut the connection before the tension slowly left Will's body and he finally turned his head to actually look at Ironhide. "He's leaving."
"One hundred and fifty miles out," Ironhide agreed. Another fifty before they'd pass the point where they had first targeted Will and Ratchet but he wasn't about to bring that up at the moment.
Will nodded slightly. "'n my head, too," he added. "He made his point."
He didn't offer any explanation as to what point that might be and Ironhide didn't ask. There would be time for that later and right now, keeping their Seeker and their medic sane and stable had priority. Debriefings could wait, as well as questions that Ironhide wasn't sure he actually wanted to hear the answers to.
There was still some tension left in Will's body and the wings still spoke of guarded caution but nothing that wasn't expected – Ironhide still felt like shooting something into tiny, little smoking pieces of debris, and he could only imagine how Will felt after getting the full force of that attention shoved on him and with his Seeker half frozen like a deer in the headlights of an oncoming Decepticon.
Whispers of something across their bond – fly-claim-kin-free-home, and the feeling of being torn between the defiance of the human side and the instinctive desire to submit and beg forgiveness that the Seeker side had felt – but Ironhide ignored that, too. He knew Will enough to know that if he wanted to talk about it, he would do it at his own pace... and possibly with Ratchet, who knew a lot more about that sort of issue than Ironhide did.
"'Hide?" Still a bit of the confusion there as Will looked to him for orders and for once, Ironhide didn't immediately know what to do.
His first instinct had been to order him off to the infirmary but those words died before he could voice them. Where did you take someone after that sort of thing when their only real medic had been affected as well? Personal quarters, hangars, recharge, command centre...
The first three options had privacy. The last had company, human and Autobot, and maybe that was exactly what Will needed now. He might be a little out of it and probably wouldn't be in the best of moods when it had all had time to settle in, but that wasn't really the point. Company was good and whatever else he might be, Seeker and everything, he had behaved exceptionally well around his NEST team. He was rattled now but if Ironhide had to be perfectly, painfully honest with himself, the Twins and Sideswipe on their bad days were little better. He was a Seeker but he was also an ally, and Ironhide fragging well intended to treat him as such.
Decision made, Arcee's comm-frequency responded instantly at his contact.
"Lennox is stable. Ratchet?"
Ironhide didn't bother with niceties and to her credit, neither did Arcee when she responded.
"Unsettled but unharmed. He refused to take his own usual advice and see himself to the infirmary. He will stay in the command centre for a while still; at the very least until Starscream and his trine are out of range."
Ironhide nodded briefly even if only Will was around to see it; a human gesture he had eventually adapted from their allies and not minded.
"I'll bring Lennox in for company."
The Command Trine was two hundred miles out and counting and Ironhide released the last of his tension. They could still turn around, still find ways to make a pest of themselves, but for now it was... if not calm, then as least less chaotic than before.
Lennox didn't resist and didn't ask when Ironhide's grip on him loosened slightly but remained where it was, and he followed silently as Ironhide led them to the hangar where Optimus and Ratchet and Arcee waited as well.
The human Will would have rolled his eyes and told him to go find Sideswipe if he wanted to hold hands. The Seeker would... probably have tried to 'face with him or beat him up for laying hands on an obviously superior bird-brain.
Neither of them would have had confused and vaguely subdued silence as their instinctive response and right now, that part worried Ironhide far more than whatever bond Starscream had with his bondmates did.