Chapter 3
A roar of fury sounded on the battlefield at the raid which had occurred three orns later. The roar belonged to Skywarp and no one thought that the black and purple flier could pack such a voice, but the prof was obvious. The reason just as clear, the wrecked frame of a blue seeker lying in his own life fluid littering the ground, the culprit's colored gold and red. The decepticon plot had backfired severely, causing Thundercracker to become victim of both twins simultaneously. The combined attacks showed more than the Air commander could handle and his wings buckled and could no longer keep him airborne.
Starscream was calmer, no longer the screechy brat he used to be during a raid, and instead circle the air above the downed seeker, trying to defend the wreck from any autobot coming near his trinemate. He could sense the other still being alive, just offline and weakened. His HUD gave him the injuries his medical scanner detected in the other, and he inwardly cursed. Two wings needed to be totally rebuild, new canopy, almost every armor plate needed replacement, and that was only the outer damages. He sure as the pit would need a full transfusion of energon if the look of the growing pool was anything to go by. He stopped watching the list just growing, returning to his surroundings. There was nothing he could do at the moment, beyond defending the other from the air.
In the time he had taken to register the damages, Skywarp had collected himself, he was no longer cursing at the twins.
Skywarp loved his oldest brother. Thundercracker had been the only one to help him through the recovery after the devastating attack on Vos those many million vorns ago. Starscream had been a wreck, his mind destroyed by the autobots when they got him back from Iacon. Shockwave, a scientist in the decepticon ranks had been the one to heal Starscream, and to help Skywarp and his brothers to gain their strength from the attack the autobots had turned against the seekers and Vos as a whole. Skywarp had needed a whole new frame, the old one destroyed, and it would have taken him with it, if it hadn't been for the Decepticons arriving a few cycles after the attack stopped. Thundercracker had been patient during the times he had needed to relearn normal actions, such as walking, talking and flying.
The worst about the attack had been the loss of his friend Airtracker and his brother Sunbeam. The two guards hadn't been found ever. Not even their frames.
"Starscream, we got to get him!" Skywarp inquired to him, voice an edge of panicky.
"Calm Sky. We can't do anything as of now. He is still alive, just offline, which I'm glad he is. He would be in a lot of pain if he were online." Starscream tended to enter lecture mode when something required his medical knowledge, not that much did, and he wasn't allowed to use it at all among the decepticons. The few repairs he did, he did only to his two brothers and in their own quarters.
"But-"the other continued only to be rudely interrupted by a null ray shot.
"DON'T do anything stupid. They are autobots, they won't harm him, but of course I won't let them get their filthy servos on what is MINE." Starscream growled, trying to calm his flighty trinemate.
"Don't you mean mine Starscream?" a silky voice asked behind them. Turning they found the tyrant present with Soundwave.
"Sir. I didn't mean it that way. Of course yours." Starscream tried to correct his mistake.
"And how can you possible spoil my so well planned plot?" Megatron growled watching the twins whooping in the distance while trashing an unfortunate decepticon.
"I-"was the only Starscream managed to pipe before Megatrons servos lay firmly around his neck straining the energon lines lying just underneath the delicate wires.
Skywarp not caring much for the fate of Starscream, much more troubled by his oldest bleeding out on the ground addressed Megatron "Sir, Thundercracker needs help."
Megatron send the black and purple flier a dark glare. "If he isn't able to get back to base himself he isn't worthy of being a decepticon." He growled. Throwing Starscream away from his frame he turned and roared "Retreat" making it heard all over the battle field.
Slumped Skywarp followed, the ever loyal decepticon, faithful that Thundercracker somehow would return. Starscream on the other hand knew better. The autobots might repair the heavily damaged flier, but no other than a flier would be able to redo the wings. Thundercracker would be grounded indefinitely.
The autobots watched the decepticons retreat, their goal still quite alive and whooping above the still frame of the blue seeker.
Ratchet moved to the spot and gruffly sent the twins a glare silencing the two mechs efficiently. The old medic didn't take nicely to damages, and the twins were more often than not the culprits of a major part of those, intentionally and unintentionally.
"You two help me load him into my altmode" Ratchet said as he had assessed the critical wounded mech, closing leaking energon lines and checking that the spark-chamber indeed was intact. Transforming he waited for the twins to lift the seeker and carry him the short way to the ambulance. The seeker secure inside him he rushed for the Ark.
"This is going to cause troubles." Prowl voiced to Prime as he watched the medic leave with the injured decepticon.
"Maybe." Prime answered, more hopeful than before. They hadn't had any of the seekers in their care before; usually they managed to reacquire their fallen comrades from the battleground before leaving, but not this time.
Returning to the Ark Ratchet had dismissed everyone from the medbay and swiftly began reassessing the damages caused to the seekers frame from the fall and the twin's volatile way of dismembering the fliers. After setting a energon drop replenishing the lost energon in the damaged fliers lines FirstAid waited in the background ready to fetch the tools the chief medic would need and the spare parts that would be needed.
Cursing Ratchet hastily filled a datapad with the basic needs and sends the younger medic off to get the materials. He would need assistance from the crazy engineer Wheeljack he mused, looking at the damaged wings. He knew only little of the workings of seekers and had to guess many times.
It turned out that the seeker frame, while lightweight composed of an alloy stronger than the one grounder frames was made of. That would complicate the repair since every armor plate on the seeker would need replacement. Saving the issue for later he removed the armor fully from the frame, searching and checking that no new or any of the sealed energon lines had ruptured.
FirstAid soon returned and the two of them started the time consuming repair.
Joors later Prime received the final comm. from Ratchet. The seeker was repaired as much as he was able to do.
When he entered the medbay to see the seeker himself he saw the delicate frame without the armor, and was stunned. Without the armor and the wings the seeker was looking nothing like the war machine he was used to face regularly on the battlefield. Thundercracker was a lot smaller and delicate, almost fragile, like he would crumble if the prime even touched him. He saw that Ratchet had left one piece of armor on the seeker, the codpiece, and he couldn't stop wondering why that was. Shrugging he decided that it might have been one of the only armor pieces not trashed completely.
A sigh behind him awoke him from his thoughts and he faced the medic.
"He will need to stay here until he awakes from the stasis, then it is up to you what to do from there. I can't do anything for his wings, which is why I decided to remove them." The medic told him as he cleaned some of the tools used.
"I got no knowledge of how he is going to react to his capture, and I am sure his fellows are going to make a mess of this."
"It is okay. You did your best. I hope this can shed some more light on the issue with the seekers." Prime told the other, optics returning to the prone frame on the med berth.
"I had a look into his processor and CPU to make sure no damage was caused to the personality module, but I don't know seekers, and can't deduce any specific damage or codes that should not be there. But he is clean from any physical damage." The medic offered his leader.
"We have never had much socializing with the seekers at any time, only when NightSun became Winglord did Vos open to the world around them. Unfortunately it seemed too late." Sorrow latched the primes voice.