I do not own Transformers Prime or any of their characters. All respective rights goes to Hasbro.

OC's are all mine.

Chapter Three

A Fiery Raid

Aboard of the Holder, humanity's mobile shelter for several months, stood Sergeant William Logers of the Protectorate. Stupefied at the turn of events, content that it was to mankind's fortune instead of the prolongement of demolition, desperation and death. He could only gaze at the workstation's radar monitors, almost brimming in glee. This was all for a cause, a cause that he prayed would lift the weight of the shoulders of many, including his own.

They had found a different system with fifteen planets, with the seventh presenting the higher chance of being a habitat.
Among the fifteen planets orbiting the white gigantic star, only one was capable of sustaining human life, for it was rightly distanced.
No matter how morally moved he was at the moment, he was well aware that the information needed to be confirmed, they would only be given the green-light if more waves of scans studied the planet in depth, localizing oxygen, water, resources, and radiation. In other words, they could only render it a habitable planet, or a non-habitat.
Then a familiar voice sounded, breaking him out of his chain of thoughts.

"Sergeant Logers, the other Sattelite squadrons will assist you and your squad in the scanning process of the targetted planet. Prioritize that scanning and nothing less, remember that our supplies are diminishing, and we may not last any longer than a few months." Commander Nicholas voiced, ordering with clarity.

"Aye, sir." Williams acknowledged and saluted to his Commanding Officer. Turning to his cherished squad, he praised them for the ammount of effort they put solemnly to locate humanity's second homeworld.

"You guys... I'm bloody proud of you two, you know that?" Both his squadmates smiled at his marking. He returned the beam.

Jack chuckled. "That we know, Wills." His vivid smile slowly diluted to a long-face. "But... we won't know for sure unless we complete the scan. And that might even take months."

Thomas and Williams looked at him. Their expressions neutral, still presenting tings of somberness. Williams set himself a reassuring smile.

"We know, Jack. We all know." William spoke. The smile still clasping his expression.

"But let's set the pessimism aside and think positively. We have orders; scan the planet with the help of the other Sat's, so let's make it so our efforts ain't in vain, yeah? Last of humanity's populace all in this tin-can."

Jack and Thomas nodded, turning to their stations, halting the subject. The only things breaking the silence were the occassional foosteps and the Sentinels shouting on the lower deck. A good part of the Sattelite Squadrons were working there aswell, the minority being on the upper deck.
Sighing, he looked to the workstation's monitor, displaying the planet's statistics. He turned to his squad, both awaiting for his needed confirmation to commence their work.

"Let's start the scan." William nodded.

Inside the ventilations of the Holder, crawled two 'men' on their way to the engine compartment. These two had infiltrated the Holder from their own nearby invisible vessel, like phantoms, unsighted. For their turn, their orders were disable the ship's propulsors, facilitating the caption of the remaining humans. The duo didn't know why they had to be captured, they weren't informed.
They were two Bhor brothers, disguised in human skin. That particular ability was rarely reserved to the Breakers whom were adept enough to earn the title of Phantom in the Bhor ranks. Such were granted the ability to disguise, the ability to turn invisible, finalizing with the ability to shrink or grow mass to a limited size.

The two brothers had clear orders in mind, and weren't going to be stopped.

The younger one followed his older brother on the lead, who was seemingly engrossed on finding their way through so many intersective ventilations. He decided to break the silence amongst them. He had a question cemented in mind. Too long wondering about one thing...

"Viq... Why do we even hunt the human race?" He questioned in a whisper, to avoid drawing unnecessary attention from under.

The older one turned to meet his younger brother's eyes, keeping his movement inside the ventilation as quiet as possible, both being careful not to make a sound in the narrow space.

"We do so out of fear, my young brother. Our despotic leaders force our current generation to war against a species we've barely known. Only to assure universal dominance, for their twisted beliefs."

"...If that is the case, why did the others, our allies, kill innocent lives on their planet, used their corpses, almost wiping them out entirely? Why didn't we rebel against them in Navia?"

Viq shook his head. If it only was so easy... He knew that his younger brother, Ya'hr, was right in his own sense, but was so innocent as to be unaware of their situation. The absolute monarchy that the Bhors and Cynormus covenant lived in, was a dominated society by the cruel clutches of the Regionaires, with the king being a mere puppet of their acts. And were you charged of heretism or treason against the monarchy, you were executed by their commissals without any judgement by the Regionaire part.

"Ya'hr, understand that our comrades might have been forced to do so, as the Regionaire's orders are absolute. And you know what happens if we don't obey, don't you?"

"I know, Viq, I know. I only... Despise the ones who take joy in ravaging innocents." Viq couldn't hide a plain feeling of felicity at his brother's words. He wasn't the only one that thought this way about that wretched Council, many considered rebelling against them in Navia, their homeworld. But wouldn't dare, as their families could have been put in danger, and executed, in behalf of the responsible's actions.

"So do I, my brother. I only agreed to this mission because we have no choice, Ya'hr. I truly feel remorse for their kind. But it's either them, or us." Ya'hr nodded, as they proceeded to the highlighted location on their vision. They were relatively close, a little more crawling and they would be there in a few minutes.

Creeping through the scanty space of the ventilations, they finally arrive at their objective. Unhitching the panel, they dropped to the floor of the Holder's engine compartment.
Their bright emerald sights were met with diverse kinds of tubing, probably the coolant and power source of the engines, and the wiring, for electricity. They were in one of the various intersected dim lighted hallways within the engine compartment, only one of all ways led to the core room. If they weren't granted their superior navigation abilities thanks to their highlighting vision, they would be at a complete loss. Viq turned his emerald eyes to every direction before locating the marked location of the propulsors. He perked, before beginning:

"This way." Viq then looked to his brother. "Follow me, Ya'hr!" The young Bhor spy nodded, following his older brother leading the way. Both spies had successfully infiltrated the Holder's engine room, the objective was to deactivate the vessel propulsors. If their objective failed, they would have to resort to blowing up the Holder, completely. It wasn't a very difficult mission, but the duo would most likely have to be very discreet in their act, for there could be several human guards inside of the compartment, considering this was their first ever spacemodule to wander so distantly of their solar system.

And their assumptions were correct. They had spotted a group of four human guards, highlighted in blue, patrolling amidst of the tubed maze of the dim lighted corridors, and they were heading directly towards them.
They quickly hid behind a pile of crates that was conveniently placed along the sides of the broad corridors of the compartment. Engaging their cloak, to blend in with the ambient. The guards wouldn't see them, for sure.
Even with their cloak mode being activated, the duo tensed with each metallic step and voices that sounded within the corridors, approaching their hiding spot by the second. For their expected fortune, the group didn't even notice the occult disguising duo.

With the passing of their guards, the duo stood by for a few more seconds in their cloak, to assure no one else was coming. Availing the lack of lightning in the corridors, they blended with the shadows, deactivating their cloak and carrying on when they were certain no guards would pass by the dark maze of tubes and wires. Crouching, they made their way towards the propulsor room, their feet carefully met the ground, to not draw unwanted attention with a loud sound.
The older Bhor spy, Viq, led the way, having more experience in furtive operations than his younger brother.

Following the highlighted location in their vision on crouched paces, the duo arrived at the vessel's propulsor room. All the tubing and wiring throughout the hallways wound up here, with six propulsors connected to the ship. Different from the somber corridors, this room had decent lightning, easing their vision. Though, there would be one problem that could compromise their tasks as spies, and force them to go loud.
The room was lit well enough for them to be completely exposed, even with their cloak. More, if one guard entered the room, the operation would be jeopardized and the Holder would have to be demolished in flames.

"We must work with haste before a human guard enters!" Viq pointed to three engines, the left of his sibling. "Ya'hr, plant the Disabling Farshocks on those three engines of theirs, I'll take the other three on the right."

"Acknowledged." Ya'hr complied, jogging his way to the left engines.

Minutes had passed since the active Sattelite squadrons of the Holder occupied their minds and bodies with the task of scanning the possibly habitable planet, right infront of their very own eyes.
All of the purged habitants of the now dominated planet Earth could only hope that the planet was indeed habitable. They needed a place they could call home again, after eleven hard months of blind wandering in the lone depth of the cosmo.

Jack was no different. He agogly viewed the monitors of his workstation, anxiously awaiting for the scanning results. So far, it was going very well. The planet didn't show any signs of hazardous components, had water, and oxygen. It also had a somewhat higher mass compared to Earth, the concern at the moment was its gravitational force. Despite the favorable outcomes by now, he couldn't help but constantly shift in his seat, nervous. He had a tingle of doubt in the back of his mind... What if this planet wasn't habitable as they declared?
What if something disastrous happened during the scan?
What if the Scourge had been chasing them this whole time? Only waiting for the perfect opportunity to attack?

He shook his head, he wouldn't think of that now. He had to stay positive, for his kind, for his family, for his comrades... And for Sylvia. Hopefully, this seemingly harmless planet won't be a farce beneath its oxygenated atmosphere.

"Still worried, Jackie?" Voiced Thomas, in a tone of sympathy. He must have noticed Jack's expression.

"Nah, I'm just a little lost in thought." He shrugged, turning to Thomas.

"What about you, Tom? Worrying alot?"

Thomas sighed. "A little. I just hope this planet is good for us to live in and all. Pop's been getting stressed, you know? 'Lotta months in deep space is just... Terrible."

"Tell me about it. I had a talk with my father one of these days..." Jack coughed, monitoring the scanning proccess whilst he spoke. "He doesn't really like this ship, and keeps saying he has a bad feeling about it." Coughing four times, Jack sighed. More attentive on the monitors.

"I'd have a bad feeling about it too. I mean, people are even getting sick, insomnia, coughing and hallucination cases. Hell, some were even diagnosed with mild schizophrenia." Jack opened his mouth to say something but could only cough.

"Looks like you're ill too, huh?" Jack nodded as Thomas reached for his pockets.

"Here, catch." He threw something to Jack. Catching the item, he examined it. A package of eight white pilules.

"A-Pills? Thanks, Tom." A-Pills were facile-producted medical pillules that could alleviate pain and coughing. It was sold in all of the Holder's pharmacies for a couple of pennies. Though plainly looking like dipyrone pills, they actually were very effecient to relieve aching and coughing, as long as you weren't severely injured.

Thomas smiled. "No prob', man. We look out for each other." He turned to monitor his own station as Jack swallowed one of the pills with some water. And at the same moment he consumed the medicine, he instantly felt the effect, his urge to cough being suppressed by the remedy.

"Can't wrap my head around how good this is. How come we didn't have this back when we were on Earth?" Jack raised a brow. His sights meeting the screen of his workstation monitors.

"Dunno." The blond shrugged. "Maybe we still weren't as advanced or something like that. What's the scanning percentage?"

"Current scanning percentage at five percent." Jack responded. "Still a long way to go."

"Ah, atleast it took off from one percent. I hope it's a good place to live in because even I am getting tired of being stuck in this coffin."

"You'n'me both."

Abruptly, the Holder quaked. Lights flicked with the braking of the vessel, Jack and Thomas stumbling left and out of their seats, to collapse on the ground. The engines emitted a loud hum of deactivation, being possible to hear it all the way from the cockpit deck. The tremblling ceased as the massive hull of the Holder gradually came to a full stop.
Jack groaned, picking himself off the floor.

"What the hell...?" He looked at Thomas.

"You alright, Tom?" Jack worriedly querried.

"Yeah... A little shaken up... But I'm just fine!" He replied, grumbling something to himself, Jack let a sigh escape his lips in relief. He couldn't make out what the murmuring was and he didn't care, as long as his friend was fine.
He then peeked from his workstation to the work halls.
He saw William staggering through the upper deck floors, between several Sattelite workstations. Everyone seemed to be shocked. Even the Commander, who was still holding on to the railings, looked concerned at the sudden halting. It wasn't long until he turned his dreary attention to the crew.

"Crew, situation report! I need to know the hull integrity of the ship!"

"Trouble in the engine compartment, sir! - Main propulsors are offline!" A Sattelite soldier quickly responded. "We're losing speed fast!"

Nicholas pointed to her. "Inform the guards nearby at once! We could be under Scourge attack!" She nodded. With Nicholas dismissing her, he then looked over his control panels and pressed a button. The emergency override was immediately activated, blaring alarms throughout the entire Holder. Lights were out, the ambience was only lit by the red dim flashing of the alarm lights.

"Attention, anomalies detected. All civilian personnel are to report to Section Five immediately, other decks will enter lockdown in three minutes. This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill." Subsequently, a ringing tone of voice sounded from the vessel's speakers. It was the electronic voice alert.

Nicholas turned and looked over the railings to the lower floor.

"Brawlers and Hawk squads!" The members of the respective squadrons looked to him the moment he called out. "Gear up and move to the engine compartment to assist the guards with their search, the last thing we need is a God damn plaguer in this ship and right infront of the planet! If it was only malfunctioning, contact me, and I'll call the engineers. Now go!"

The two squads deployed their suits and rushed out of the cockpit through a entryway, running their way towards the engine compartment in a matter of seconds. Had something gone terribly wrong in that compartment, they would see to it battle-ready. As previously trained and exercised in the Protectorate back on Earth, soldiers could absolutely not afford to lower their guards at any moment. Especially if the problem concerned the Scourge. Nicholas wasn't a man to just settle down if a situation like this arised, and he definitely felt more at ease, knowing the capabilities of the soldiers in combat against the Scourge.
Different from the Garrison personnel, or simply known as 'guards' whom equivaled police officers, armed with Kelta powered firearms. Commonly tasked with law-enforcement or to warder critical sections within the Holder, instancing the engine compartment or maintenance deck.

He hadn't heard or seen anything that would dilute the Garrison's reputation. He admired their work and contribution to the security policies of the Holder, maintaining the peace and order within the vessel. However, the guards were only trained to deal with minor cases of theft, against assailants. Though they were armed with Kelta munitioned weapons, they weren't trained to act like a military force. That, and the fact that Kelta munition couldn't possibly do any more than simply stun the threat, practically harmless against the mortal forces of the plaguers when compared to a military grade Klonium longsword.

Being negligent in this situation could be fatal. Not only for his person, but to the life of many others aswell. He also had to worry with the civilians inside of the ship. For their turn, their contributions varied. They could be either big or small, but important nonetheless. Mankind couldn't afford to lose even more of their population.

Nicholas then gunned his eyes towards the First Armor squad. He saw Jack, who was occupied succoring some of the stunned members of the Sattelite, along with his two squadmates. He needed them elsewhere at the moment...

"Alright, First Armor!" Upon hearing this, the three soldiers of the First Armor immediately turned to their commanding officer, leaving their still floored colleagues to sort themselves out. They'd live, no big deal.

"Head to the armory and core up your armor. I might need deploy you three, aswell, don't come out of that armory until I say so." The Commander bid, to which Jack and his two squadmates quickly followed. Accedding his order with an "Aye, sir!" before heading on jogs towards the armory.

The trio left the pit through another aperture, hurrying throughout a catwalk connected to the cockpit, overpassing a capacious lobby replete with panicking civilians, their chorus of terrified squeaks and wailing disturbed the peaceful silence that once resided in the lobby.

To their left, poised a very tall window pane that allowed exterior viewing of space and majority of the hull that extended along the sight, mainly on the left side. They would be looking right at the engine compartment. So far, they didn't see anything unusual. They prayed for whatever happened to only be a minor malfunction and nothing more. Losing control of the Holder and likely crash into the planet without even knowing if it was habitable wasn't going to sit well with many.

Thomas wasn't coping well with the thought.

"Fuck, man. We've all had enough of the grunts and those green-eyed freaks back on Earth, now we've got to deal with them again?"

"Calm down, it could be a malfunction. We haven't stopped until now, It might just be that." Jack reassured, but landed the opposite effect on Thomas. His squadmate frowned.

"Glad you said it, it might." The blond emphasized the last word. "What kind of Kelta engine cuts out like that, anyway?" Jack shook his head.

"... I don't know. But if it did cut out, that's the first problem in ten months, even with all that maintenance." He glanced at the crowd below, a few agitated here and there but they were starting to ease up on their way. "Let's just go to the armory and wait for whatever the Commander has in mind."

(...)

"Looks like it worked, Viq!" The older Breaker nodded in response.

"So it seems. Quickly, let's exit the ship. The human guards have undoubtedly noticed and are coming as we speak."

The Phantom duo deployed their invisibility cloak and soundlessly made their way through the maze of wires the second time that day. Occassionaly stopping and making way for the Holder's guards to run by in order to avoid being caught.

"Viq, have you contacted the Mothership?" Ya'hr querried. "... This human form is... tiring me."

"I have, Ya'hr." Viq turned to his young brother in concern. "Hold on a little longer, my brother. We're almost reaching the point of extraction." Ya'hr nodded, seemingly more tranquil despite being physically and mentally exhausted. Shrinking and assuming a determined form for an extensive ammount of time demanded alot of energy from a Phantom. And may cause extreme fatigue, hence the reason as to why Bhor Phantoms were handpicked from their seniors to serve as the best of the best.

The two Bhors pressed their pace against time itself, with Ya'hr getting more and more fatigued by the minute with his form. Viq was an extremely effective, composed and cold operator in the Scourge ranks, but the tired pantings and the slower pacings of Ya'hr greatly frightened him. The thought of losing his brother perturbed his mind each time he was deployed into a battlefield, especially if the zone of operations was directly inside the enemy lines. And each time found himself almost completely replacing his fear with confidence in his brother's abilities, seeing the effectivity of Ya'hr in the frontlines and some infiltration operations.

Viq eased when they came across a circular hatch, with the words at its top displaying "Exit" in red. The blue highlighting around the door from Viq's vision indicated it was unlocked and ready to allow their exit. Both were let out relieved sights, glad that they were about to leave the dark maze. Upon opening the hatch, Viq and Ya'hr took a little time to scan their surroundings as they slowly approached a second hatch that led to the ship's tram system. It was the fastest way out of the ship and he wasn't going to take more chances to push his brother's fatigue any further. His condition was already getting worse.

They slowly approached the second hatch, still viewing their surroundings for any oncoming threat in the decently lit room. Braking themselves as their backs made contact with the cold metallic features of the door, neither Viq or Ya'hr sensed any hostiles behind the door or nearby. Reluctantly, Viq unlocked the hatch and gestured for Ya'hr to go on ahead while he watched their six.

Just as when Ya'hr crossed the doorway, the ship roared its alarms and shut off the lightning. The flashing red of the alarms now served as the room's illumination source.

"Entering lockdown."

"Viq! Come on!" Ya'hr called out.

The hatch shut off just as when he rushed to the door, leaving Viq trapped in the hall as he futilely attempted to force the door open.

Failing each attempt, he knew he was going nowhere if he kept trying to force it and decided to leave it be.

"Viq! Viq!" His younger brother desperately cried out from behind the hatch.

"Ya'hr, I'm fine! Go on ah-"

"Oh Luminus! How do I open this?!"

"Ya'hr, listen..."

"I'll get you out of there, Viq! I'll-"

"Ya'hr! Listen to me! I want you to go on ahead and take their transport microvessel to the other section and get out of here! I'll find another way out..."

"No. No! I'm not leaving you here!"

"There is no time! Their system layouts are different from the past years!"

"But-"

"Leave me, Ya'hr! Complete the mission, that's an order!"

Viq sighed when he heard his brother loudly cursing to himself, quickly followed by his distancing footsteps. Viq was willing to give his own life in order to complete the mission and protect his brother and people. He prayed to Luminus to keep Ya'hr safe from harm and to give him strength to fare without a brother, knowing the chances of him returning to the Mothership were very slim.

He could faintly make out the quick approach of the human guards from the distance behind. He only had a few seconds to hide and search for an alternate route.
Crouching and deploying his invisibility cloak, he once again advantaged himself in the shadows as he camouflaged himself behind a file of several plant beds.

Viq cursed to himself. "This human form is tiring me aswell. I have to shift."

The guards were getting closer.

Readying himself for possible engagement, he eyed the hatch and grudgingly awaited for an upcoming squad of humans. These humans... despite being seemingly weak in appearance when in comparison to a common Bhor ranker, weren't to be understimated with the power of their so baptized 'Core Armors'. It can be even worse if they are in a bunch, or in a batallion, for they are well coordinated with their strikes and with undoubtedly can even cause considerable damage against the mightiest of Bhors and Cynormus. Surprisingly, they were still considered primitives within the knowledges of the covenant.

The approaching sound of numerous footsteps came to a stop from behind the hatch.

He shifted mass and weight, noticing that his human form consumed a good portion of his energy. He deduced that if he wanted to atleast have the minimal chances of returning, he would need to have some energy for combat. The humans were enough of a threat with Core Armors and Luminus knows what happens if they manage to capture a Bhor...
He let out a snort of disgust as he assumed his original form, still invisible. Phantoms aim to take out their targets as quickly and as silently as possible. While the hall he was in didn't present many advantages in the safest and stealthiest aspect, there were a few points he could exploit. And maybe find a way out before more human soldiers attacked him.

The hatch hissed as it opened, quickly followed by a squadron of five armored soldiers rushing into the hall, their weapons drawn.

"Alright, search the area! Louis says he saw two men in here just before the lockdown and one went ahead, might have been the clowns who messed with the engines." With a hand gesture, the leader continues. "Marlowe and Hoppers, you'll be searching this hall with me." He ordered as he turned to the rest of his squadron. "And you two, go ahead through the hatch and look for the other, he couldn't have gone too far."

"Aye, Sergeant!" Responded one of whom he had pointed.

"Copy." Followed the other as they began to move. The two soldiers went ahead, leaving the other three to search the hall.

Viq frowned as the two humans pressed to his position. To his six, was the airlock Ya'hr had previously crossed, they were after his brother, unaware that the only way they would get to cross that door was over his corpse.

It wasn't even a moment and they were nearly ontop of him.

There was no time, He'll have to go loud to protect his brother, his cover would be blown sooner or later anyways.

In a split second, the Phantom Bhor deactivated his invisibility cloak and used his superior strength to burst through the flowerbeds, causing the two human soldiers to lurch in bewilderment at the subtle flare of fragments from their twelve.
Using their confusion to his advantage, the Bhor swatted one of them with a powerful blow to their torso, sending the human flying back several meters, his scream cut short as he impacted a wall with a sickening 'crack'.

"Holy shit!" A shocked soldier voiced from the trio.

"Open fire!" The leader of the group ordered, blazing the halls with Kelta.

The Phantom threw himself to the ground, barely avoiding the onslaught of the blue energy. A shot from their so called 'Kelta' wouldn't be lethal, but were potent enough to subdue a Bhor ranker with a strong chain of electricity. Very painful.

Viq crawled to safety whilst Kelta shots threatened to leave a mark on his head, whistling from above him and shattering glass panels inside of the room. He stopped and took cover behind a pillar, looking back from where he once stood as a wave of blue energy attacked his position.
There were no signs of the other soldier... this was bad. He scanned his surroundings for the threat, the last thing he needed was to be taken by surprise and be captured.

For long as he scanned, Viq almost gathered that the human ran to his companions. Until the hail of Kelta stopped, for his relief.

And for his dismay, the approaching sound of metallic steps and a warcry brought him out of his past action, it was the other human.
As the soldier approached, the Bhor sidestepped a thrust from the former, leaving the young human in shock at the sheer agility of his opponent.

The second soldier, for his turn, reacted with desperate slashes and cuts to the Phantom's frame, driven by adrenaline to try and terminate the threat with such careless and pitiful blows as if forgetting about training, if he had received any at all. Viq dodged and parried each strike with ease. He couldn't help but feel a ping of guilt at the knowledge that another young life was going to be scythed by his hands, cruelty of the inexperience; sister of fate. The two species were at war... and as a Phantom Bhor, Viq had to do his duty.

He evaded a diagonal slash and responded with a quick haul of his leg, his nano-armored toe connecting with the soldier's head.
The helmet was shattered to pieces as the force of the kick proved too much for it to endure, leaving a limp human body with a punctured skull to lifelessly fall to the ground. So far, he was faring well against the squadron.

He was taken by surprise when another explosion sounded off to his left.

Human reinforcements.