Chapter 17-Fire in the Sky
Aquarius gave another curse as she blew into her gloved hands to warm them up. She never did well in cold weather, and Alaska was as cold as it could get without reaching the Arctic.
Thanks to Aries losing the Decepticon he captured, Aquarius found herself roped into taking an excavation team to one of the coldest places in the western hemisphere looking for some wayward energy source that could've been alien in origin. They had been in this winter wonderland for almost two days and had nothing to show for it, and the weather was starting to fray some nerves, namely hers.
Stomping out of the tent she was working in, Aquarius looked around at the base camp set up around her. OZ soldiers were running around with different tasks, giving quick but sharp salutes as they passed her. Outside the camp, mining talos called Asukas imported from Nippon were hard at work digging up the ground where the signal was coming from, scooping up ice and snow with their large shovel hands and digging through the earth with arm mounted power drills.
On the other side of camp, were a black airship and three VTOL Hurricane jets sitting near it. The jets were a precaution in case she was attacked by the Decepticons, but they were expensive, and she was only allowed to take a certain number of jets with her on the mission.
"Aquarius!"
Aquarius frowned as a handsome young man with auburn hair tied back in a ponytail and clad in a needlessly stylish coat walked up to her with a suave and extremely well practiced smile on his face. Alejandro Corner of Linear Train Industries was a man who was the physical embodiment of rich boy, though he had great ambitions that he hid under the façade of a successful businessman. Personally, Aquarius hated the man, but he had his uses (such as producing almost half of OZ's Codarl units in secret facilities in Osea alone), unfortunately, so she couldn't be rid of him yet.
"I shouldn't have to tell you to refer to me by my title, Corner. Either you adhere to protocol, or I send you packing down south." Aquarius said coldly.
"Aqua-" Alejandro cleared his throat when he felt the snow around his boots get tighter. "General, please, haven't I proven myself to you already? I mean, you'd never have been able to do this operation in plain sight without turning the snow red. I just want to be a team player."
"Keep in mind, Corner, that no matter how useful you are to OZ, we are not above snuffing you out to make a point." Aquarius sneered. "Now, what's the sit rep on the excavation?"
"Depends on whether the source point is merely buried in the stone or under tons of layers of rock." Alejandro said. "If it's the latter, then you better get to work on building an igloo."
Aquarius gave him a look that actually made him look a bit sheepish. The only reason he was here slumming it out with her in the snow was because he wanted to see how his new MKII Asuka mining talos operate in non-temperate weather conditions. He may have been a member of OZ from birth, but he was also the CEO of one of the largest talos production companies in the western hemisphere, on part with the legendary Schaft Enterprises and Shinohara Industries in the east. Killing high profile people like him took preparation to cover their tracks and his access to his company's immense resources kept him from the usual retribution Aquarius dealt on people who made her mad.
"Well, have your men speed it up. We don't know how long the talos can operate in these frigid conditions for long." She commanded.
"As you wish, your majesty." Alejandro quipped.
Before anything could be done, a soldier ran up to Aquarius and saluted her. "General!"
"What is it, soldier?" She asked.
"Beta Team in sector 3 has found something…big, sir! I think it might be what we're looking for." He reported.
Aquarius raised a thin, delicate eyebrow and nodded for the soldier to lead her to the dig site. They walked through the overcrowded camp to the second excavation area they were working on, where a group of Asuka talos were gathered around the large hole they dug through snow and frozen earth. When she and Alejandro got to the site, Aquarius looked down and smiled.
"This is definitely worth waiting for." Aquarius hummed, very pleased with her progress.
Unknown to her, a round object hovering high above the camp was recording everything that was going on.
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Starscream sat slumped in his seat glaring at the computer in front of him. He spent the last hour watching video footage from the drone he had Knockout whip up for him when they first landed on Terra. He sent it out from orbit to investigate the extremely faint energon signal that popped up on their radar thanks to their sat coverage of the Osean continent. Since the signal was so small and miniscule, Megatron didn't give it a second glance, leaving Starscream free to do his own snooping once he learned that the signal was not energon in nature.
He was a bit disappointed to see that there were humans digging right on top of the signal, especially the same humans that tried to gut Lugnut, but Starscream figured that he could let them do the hard work for him before swooping in and stealing their quarry. This was the perfect chance to get a possible lead over the warlord, thinking it might be something he could use against him.
Megatron liked to brag about his invulnerability, but Starscream knew he had a weakness-everyone had a weakness. It was just a matter of finding it, and it was only a matter of time before he found Megatron's and brought the Decepticon leader to his knees. This little mystery signal in Alaska might be just the thing he was looking for, and these humans were going to help him get it.
"You find anything yet, Screamer?" Zapmaster's annoying voice asked him.
Starscream looked over his shoulder to see his Minicon partner with Thundercracker and Skywarp standing in his doorway, all wearing mocking smirks on their faces. Normally he wouldn't give a damn about what those two thought, but their constant nagging was getting on his nerves.
"Perhaps," Starscream said dryly. "Though I doubt either of you dimwits would understand."
"Whoa, where did the hostility come from?" Thundercracker laughed. "We're just a bit worried. You haven't been getting that much sleep lately."
"Yeah, we know you have beef with Megatron, but give it a rest. You won't find any weaknesses on him." Skywarp said.
"Off course he has a weakness, you fools!" Starscream yelled at them and turned back to his computer. "No one is unbeatable. Not the Primes, not Deadscream, and certainly not Megatron. Everyone has a weakness."
"Well, have fun finding it." Zapmaster said.
Starscream paid them no attention. Getting aggravated and overheating wasn't going to do him any good. Watching the footage from his drone for a few more minutes, his dour mood suddenly did an about face immediately and he began to laugh. The smiles on his subordinates' faces fell as Starscream turned to face them again, this time with his trademark smirk splitting his face.
"Gentlemen, it seems the humans have found something very useful to our cause." He said and pointed to the monitor. Thundercracker and Skywarp looked at the recording and their expressions turned from disbelief to shock.
The humans had found a cybertronian buried in the snow.
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It was the end of a school day at Heartsgrace Middle School and the young students were eagerly filing out of the building, eager to make good use of their freedom. With it being late fall, the sun was already on the verge of setting and the day was quickly fading away. Only two students were unfortunate enough not to be out enjoying themselves.
"Ms. Radcliffe," Mr. Rosenberg sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "This is the fifth time you've failed to turn in your science report. Your grades in this class, as well as others, are not looking very good. What do you think I'm supposed to do here?"
Annie sucked her teeth, and tried to look innocent as possible. "Maybe…give me a pass?"
"Do you understand the position you're in?" He snapped, making her jump. "If you continue to either fail your major projects or hand them in late, you're in danger of repeating a year! And that means summer school, young lady!"
Annie bit her lip. Yeah, summer school was very bad. He sighed and gave her an ultimatum.
"I'm giving you one last chance to turn in your complete report on the effects of drastic temperature change. And to make sure you actually get it done," He motioned to the other occupant in the room. "Mr. Koss will be doing it with you."
"Wait, what?" Both children exclaimed.
"But why me? I didn't do anything wrong!" Kevin protested.
"No, but you're the only one who hasn't turned in his report either. So in addition to helping your friend here complete her report, you'll be turning yours in as well." Mr. Rosenberg said. "Be glad that the only reason you're even getting a second chance is because of your family's situation. I'm being generous."
"But…" Annie sighed after her science teacher gave her a look.
Both children gloomily exited the classroom and walked over to the lockers. Once they were far enough away from the classroom, Annie punched Kevin hard in the shoulder.
"This is all your fault!" She yelled.
"How is it my fault?" Kevin asked, rubbing his shoulder. That girl knew how to punch. "You decided to be lazy and not do your report."
"And now I'm stuck doing it with you." She said, grabbed Grindor from her locker. "I'm not even going to use this crap in the future, so why the hell do I have to learn it?"
"Well…since you want to be a talos pilot, it's important to know stuff like this. Just in case your machine breaks down or something…like in the Arctic." Kevin winced. That sounded bad even to him.
Annie looked at him like he was stupid and stomped down the hall. "I'm going to meet Bulk outside."
"Hey, Annie," Grindor whispered. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing. Now shut up and play dead."
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Bulkhead exited the ground bridge, where Gina and Bumblebee were manning the controls with Ratchet. It was very quiet, a rarity when Bulkhead and Annie were concerned, and the former was trading glares with Kevin when they vacated the Autobot. When Bulkhead asked what was wrong, Kevin mentioned something about a science report, but Annie told him to shut up and that was the end of that.
She had been quite chilly to him lately, and he figured that she was still cross with him for not taking her advice on killing Lugnut during his capture by OZ. Bulkhead tried to explain to her why he didn't do the deed, but she was quite adamant that he wussed out when it came to it. It was a "dog eat dog" world and Lugnut wouldn't extend the same courtesy to him if their roles were reversed. It honestly surprised him at how bloodthirsty she could be.
Gina looked down from her spot on the console she was sitting on and whistled at the thick animosity in the air. "Jinkies, what happened this time?"
"Don't know, don't want to know." Bulkhead said as he left the room.
"Where's Darren?" bumblebee asked.
"Out helping Debbie with some errands." Annie said, bored. An idea crossed her mind and she looked at Ratchet. "Yo, doc. Do you know how metal reacts when exposed to drastically changing temperatures?"
"Not now, Annie." Ratchet said, eyes on the monitor. "Teletran just picked up a faint signal."
"Is it a Minicon?" Gina asked. Ratchet shook his head.
"No, it's different. I think it's a cybertronian life signature." The medic said in astonishment.
"Another cybertronian? Are you sure?"
"I recognize the difference between an energon signature and a biosignal. It's faint, however." Ratchet answered. "And I don't know if it's one of ours or theirs."
"I can go check it out." Bumblebee offered.
"Count me in, Bee." Jazz called out, entering the shuttle bay with his usual swagger.
"Are you sure, Jazz?" Ratchet asked.
"Of course I'm sure. It's just a scouting mission. Nothing high risk, yet." Jazz replied. "Fire up the bridge, doc."
Ratchet inputted the coordinates and activated the ground bridge. Jazz and Bumblebee ran into the portal, vanishing from sight within the vortex.
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Jazz and Bumblebee left the ground bridge in the middle of a snowy forest deep in Alaska. The minute they stepped out into the cold, they were met with frigid gusts of wind and a dark grey sky that did not make them feel warm and cozy. Mechanical they may be, extreme temperatures could affect even their biology, and they had to be careful. They were lucky, had they had to travel to Antarctica in the middle of winter, they would've been frozen alive and shutdown faster than frostbite.
"This place is cold." Jazz said idly. "Guess Gina wasn't kidding when she said this place as a regular winter wonderland."
"Hate to see what the Arctic is like." Bumblebee commented.
"Hopefully we won't have to." Jazz said as he took out his scanner. "Let's get going before our gears freeze on the spot."
They walked through the forest, the only sound being the faint echoes of the local wildlife and the crunching of snow beneath their large feet. Bumblebee, while alert for any enemies, made sure to take in as much of the scenery as possible. Snow was practically nonexistent on Cybertron aside from the glacial plains at the poles, and he never got a chance to go beyond Nova Cronum on scouting missions. This was certainly a treat for the eyes.
Jazz chuckled a bit at the scout's childlike wanderlust with the terran scenery and looked at the scanner. A second later he stopped and glanced over his shoulder, his smile gone in a flash.
"Bee, can I ask you something?"
"You already did," Bumblebee grinned. "But sure, what's up?"
"Did we secure the ground bridge when we got here?" Jazz asked.
"I think so. Why?"
"Well…"
"Annie, I swear to all that's holy, when we get out of here, I'm smoking your ass!" Kevin's voice rang behind them.
"That's why." Jazz said.
They turned around and saw Annie, Kevin and Grindor trudging through the snow. Obviously, given her lack of warm protection, Annie was freezing cold. Kevin, however was more than fine, completely unaffected by the snow despite wearing a sleeveless shirt and jeans. The snow was actually melting around him. Jazz and Bumblebee walked up to them and glared down at the trio disapprovingly.
"Can you three spare a moment to explain why you're here?" Jazz asked. Annie had the decency to look sheepish.
"I may have tripped and fell into the ground bridge before it shutdown." She said quietly, trying to appeal to them using her innate cute factor, but Kevin's scoff threw that plan out the window.
"Please, girl, you jumped ship and pulled me along as your partner in crime. And I don't even know what the hell Grindor was thinking." He said, making her shake her fist at him.
"Grindor, you're supposed to be protecting her!" Bumblebee said. Grindor shrugged helplessly.
"Sorry! To be fair, I was supposed to watch over her. Keeping her out of trouble is a task better suited for Bulkhead."
Jazz sighed, they didn't have time for this. "Okay, look. You three can come along, but stay out of sight and don't make too much noise. If things get hairy, you haul ass it away from us. Understand?"
"Okey dokey !" Annie chirped.
Kevin shook his head. "You guys spoil this girl too much."
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Starscream's Seeker squadron flew through the air over the Alaskan wilderness at Mach 2 speed to their intended destination. They had to go there by air instead of taking the ground bridge to avoid alerting Megatron and the others to their clandestine activities, and this meant they were on their own in this operation. Not that Starscream minded-the less Megatron knew, the better.
"So what's the plan, Starscream?" Thundercracker asked.
"What do you think? We hit the humans hard and fast. They won't know what hit them when we strike them with the fury of a thousand Seekers." Starscream said haughtily.
"Um, I'm all for shoving missiles up whatever they call their tailpipes, Starscream," Skywarp said uncertainly. "But aren't these the same guys that took down Lugnut? That guy is no slouch in battle, and they managed to take him down."
"What Lugnut excels in physically, he lacks mentally. It's no hard task taking that brute down once you get past his mace. We are different-we are Seekers and we're more formidable warriors than that dumb hunk of metal." Starscream said. "Now Seekers-to victory!"
"We are so dead." Thundercracker muttered.
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Aquarius and Alejandro watched intently as the Codarl units slowly towed the large green and red mechanoid out of the hole in the snowy ground. The Codarls stood around twenty feet, and the cybertronian was probably around thirty or thirty-three feet tall and extremely heavy. The snow wasn't stable enough to hold their weight and it made the extraction process slower than Aquarius wanted it to be. But she was satisfied with her success and it was the win she needed to brag about to Aries.
"Gentlemen, congratulations are in order!" She said to the assembled soldiers and talos pilots. "What we have here is a discovery that shall be the greatest in human history, rivaling the discovery of the first golems. You should all be proud for your dedication and hard work that brought all this about. With the knowledge and power we will learn from this alien, we will be the greatest power in the world and no First World nation can keep us down. The world is ours!"
"All hail the Zodiac!" The soldiers chanted in perfect unison.
Hidden from view just outside the camp site, Jazz, Bumblebee and their little tag alongs were watching the proceedings from behind a hill in the forest.
"So these are those OZ goons you told me about?" Kevin asked.
"Yeah-black jumpsuits, unofficial talos, world domination megalomania-it's all there." Jazz said. "This…makes the mission a bit more difficult."
"So…what's the plan?" Annie asked. "Do we rush in and hit them hard before they get a chance to bring out their big guns?"
"No way, Bulkhead tried that and he was almost killed." Grindor whispered. "And he's, like, four Bumblebees in one."
"You want to rush in and fight all those soldiers with guns and giant robots without so much as a battle plan? Don't you ever think things through?" Kevin said disappointed in her. Annie threw him a glare.
"Of course I think things through, and that was my battle plan. It's totally foolproof." She said.
"A foolproof plan made by a fool. That's a sight." He snorted.
"God, you sound just like Darren and his responsibility bull crap. Where's your sense of adventure?"
"There's a difference between bravery and stupidity, Annie." Kevin replied and sighed, blowing smoke from his mouth. "And I'd rather life to enjoy the adventure in question."
"Quiet." Jazz ordered. He looked around and brought Bumblebee in closer. "Bee, can you sneak in behind those crates?"
He pointed over to a group of large cargo crates that were settled there by the docking crew from the airship carrying supplies for the soldiers and ammo for the talos. Bumblebee nodded and quietly made his way over to them, silent as a breeze and the soldiers were none the wiser. As the scout made his way to his hiding place, Jazz turned to the children and Minicon.
"You three, stay here and out of sight. I mean it." He added, mainly for Annie's sake. He then jogged over to a group of thick trees near the excavation site opposite the crates.
"He freaking would have us hang back." Annie pouted. She spotted Grindor looking at something. "Grindor, what's up?"
"That tent over there. I've seen Aquarius go in and out of that place. I think that's where she's staying." He said.
"Yeah, so?" Annie asked.
"If that's where she's staying, then that tent might have some very juicy info for us to use. Like a laptop or something."
"Stealing info on the enemy." Kevin grinned. "That's a good idea."
"Well then, what are we waiting for?" Annie grabbed the boys and pulled them down the hill towards the campsite.
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Aquarius watched with a satisfied smile as the Codarls loaded the cybertronian onto a flatbed truck and hauled it off towards the airship. One of her guards ran up to her.
"Sir, we've got three NBEs heading straight for us at one 'clock!"
"Well it's about damn time. It was only a matter of time when our activities would draw at least one of them into our net." Aquarius muttered. "Ready the Mobile Armor teams and fire up the Hurricanes. Blast those trash heaps out of the sky!"
"Yes, sir!"
She turned to Alejandro. "You make sure that nothing happens to that body. I don't want anyone who isn't part of my team even looking at it. Got it?"
"Yes ma'am." Alejandro smirked and walked away to watch over the retrieval efforts.
Aquarius looked to the side and threw off her coat. There was no way she was going to let those aliens get the better of her like they did Aries!
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"Target sighted." Skywarp announced.
"Good. Target the airships first, don't let them escape." Starscream ordered and charged his weapons systems. "Let's give the humans a show, shall we?"
The Seeker trio locked on to their targets and fired them into the camp. The entire site erupted into chaos, explosions engulfing large sections of the camp, killing dozens in the first strike and scattering the OZ soldiers. Thundercracker and Skywarp fired missiles at the airships, hitting two of them on point but missing the third, though the explosions had tore apart the airship's propulsion mechanism, effectively grounding it. The Seekers circled around for another air strike and the Codarls that weren't caught in the opening assault opened fire on the jets from the ground. As he used his Vulcan guns to take out the ground forces, Thundercracker noticed three fighter craft on their tail.
"Starscream, we've got three bogeys on our tail!" He called out.
"Wipe them out!" Starscream yelled.
Three dark blue Hurricane fighter craft were in hot pursuit of the Seekers. Once they locked on to the Cons, they each fired two missiles and broke apart. The Seekers also scattered to avoid the missiles, but one hit Thundercracker in his wing while another hit Starscream's thrusters.
"Slag!" Starscream cursed. Seeing two jets flying at him, he transformed and used his damaged thrusters to propel himself back, letting the jets fly past him before firing his arm cannons. He clipped the wing of one Hurricane, causing it to lose its balance and break contact.
Skywarp teleported above the second jet, switching to robot mode and landing on its wings. He tore one of the wings off and jumped back to throw the wing at the cockpit. It smashed through the bulletproof glass and impaled the pilot through the chest, killing him instantly. The jet lost control and descended to earth, where it crashed in the forest.
Thundercracker spun in the air so that he was flying at his pursuer upside down. When they neared each other, he righted himself and dropped his cluster bombs seconds before they passed over one another, and the jet was hit by the bombs head on, exploding in a fireball.
From the ground, Aquarius forced herself not to scream in rage, but her face was morphed into a rather demonic scowl. Those Hurricanes were expensive, as were the rest of the equipment and machines she brought along, and nearly all of them were destroyed. She thought the jets would've been a deal breaker fighting against the cybertronians, but apparently she was wrong. So very wrong.
"Fine then," Aquarius growled. "Let's take the battle to our level."
Aquarius ran forward and flipped into the air. At her mental command, the snow under her instantly changed into ice and she skated on it with uncanny skill, skating through the inferno of her camp gracefully. Raising her arms, she summoned more snow into the air and liquefied it into water, and fired the huge watery mass skywards.
The Seekers definitely weren't expecting that. Starscream and Thundercracker were hit first, hit by large blasts of water that grabbed them and dragged them to the ground. Skywarp was just fast enough to teleport when he saw his comrades get ensnared, but when he reappeared, two watery tendrils stabbed into him from behind, slashing his wings and stabbing through his legs to pull him to the earth.
One by one, the Seekers crashed to the ground with thunderous impacts, throwing up snow and dirt and crushing trees underneath their immense weight. They converted back to robot mode and were approached by a platoon of Codarls armed with assault rifles and missile launchers.
'Well this mission went from bad to worse really fast.' Thundercracker thought.
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Bumblebee cursed himself for thinking that he was home free when making his way towards the airships. Things went to hell the moment the Seekers appeared and started laying waste to the camp. It was total chaos for both sides as the talos tried shooting down the Seekers and got mowed down themselves, and the only bright spot was that the airship holding the stasis locked cybertronian was grounded.
"Oh man." Bumblebee breathed as he saw Aquarius have the snow and ice around her bring the three Seekers to the ground with relative ease. She was an esper, and a very powerful one surrounded by her weapon-water. "Jazz, you seeing this?"
"I sure am, Bee." Jazz said grimly. If this woman could do that much damage to the Seekers, she could possibly make short work of them too. "Things keep getting harder by the second."
Meanwhile, Kevin, Annie and Grindor were already in Aquarius' command tent, hard at work in getting any information on OZ. the tent was mostly empty save for a table, a few books, a crate and sleeping bag and a laptop. Grindor immediately got to work on the laptop, scanning for any important files they could use.
"Hold it, what's that file there?" Kevin asked, pointing to a file in the corner of the screen.
Grindor clicked it and a short list popped up. Annie read it over.
"Alejandro Corner, Wang Liu Mei, Laguna Harvey, James McCullen Destro…" She muttered, her expression falling with each name.
"Who are these people?" Grindor asked.
"Some of these guys are big wigs in the talos industry. Others are CEOs of weapons manufacturers and the heads of wealthy families with mainly connections to the military and arms dealers." Kevin said.
"Yeah and I recognize that Corner guy. He's the head of Linear Train Industries. They make talos for the Osean military, really high up the military contractor food chain." Annie said.
"I guess this answers where OZ gets most of its tech from." Kevin hummed.
Grindor took out a data slug and plugged it into the laptop. It only took a few seconds for the device to copy and download the info before he took it out. Annie heard someone outside the tent.
"Hide!" She whispered.
Grindor went to vehicle mode and Annie picked him up as she and Kevin hid behind the large crate. Alejandro walked in, calm as ever despite the fierce battle going on not too far. He looked at the laptop for a moment before shrugging and transferring his files onto a flash drive before turning it off and taking it with him. Once he was gone, Kevin and Annie crawled out when they were sure he was gone.
"That was close." Annie said relieved.
"Let's get out of here before our luck runs out." Kevin said.
They made for the tent flaps, but the moment they stepped outside, they almost ran straight into Aquarius. The general looked down at them in surprise, but that quickly faded into displeasure.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" She frowned. Black particles oozed from her skin, hissing like black sand and enveloped her body. Anne and Kevin watched with wide eyes as the woman was encased in a black and red armored carapace with a slender face-like mask an curved horns on her head."I certainly can't have two brats fooling around in MY tent, now can I?"
Grindor wasn't going to wait for her to harm the kids; he leapt out of Annie's arms, transformed to his natural form and drop kicked Aquarius in the chest. The blow knocked the breath from her and would've fractured the chest cavity of a normal human, though she was only winded and sore as she hit the ground. But she was still coherent enough to spin her body on the ground and shaped the snow into ice, which she sent at them.
Kevin pushed Annie back and punched a burst of flames from his hand that melted the ice. Grindor fired his wrist cannons but Aquarius brought up an ice wall to protect herself. A wave of her arm and the ice wall fired a flurry of spikes at him, one of which impaled him in the shoulder.
"Grindor!" Annie screamed.
Her cry was heard by Jazz, who looked over and saw them under attack by the strange woman. Cursing, he ran out of cover and sprinted for them. The soldiers noticed him and fired their rifles at him, but he ignored them as he went for the kids.
Aquarius saw Jazz coming and thrust her arms forward. The snow under Jazz's feet froze over and five spikes shot up from the ground. Fortunately, Jazz avoided being skewered and he broke the ice around his feet, firing his blaster at Aquarius. The women back-flipped from the laser bolt and lashed out with a barrage of razor sharp ice dics, which shattered against his armor.
"We've got to move, now!" Grindor grabbed the children and pulled them away from the battle unseen.
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Bumblebee did his best to remain out of sight as the Seekers fought the talos. Missiles and laser blasts flew everywhere and he had to keep his head low to avoid getting hit by a stray projectile. The Seekers were holding their own, but OZ's heavy artillery was running them ragged-a rare sight when they were concerned. Jazz was still fighting Aquarius and seemed to be having his own troubles.
Jazz was a great fighter, he knew that very well. He was practically the poster boy of the Autobot Special Operations group. On top of that, he was a martial arts master and hard mech to keep down in a battle. Seeing him have difficulty fighting a human esper was troubling to say the least.
Aquarius moved with superhuman speed and agility, leaping and flipping around him with water circling her form, skating on ice formed from the snow under her while also using it to block the laser blasts Jazz fired at her. The Autobot was forced to resort to his laser staff to smash apart the ice she set at him. Like Aries, she was no slouch when it came to fighting, despite being human and having an obvious disadvantage.
Bumblebee wanted to help Jazz, but he had a job to do, and that was rescue this mysterious cybertronian from whatever cruel fate OZ had in store for him or her. The airship was almost completely empty thanks to the air strike that forced the humans away, so he had no trouble sneaking over to the flatbed truck parked in front of it. As he neared the trailer, Bumblebee blinked in surprise-he knew this person!
The cybertronian lying on the platform was a green femme with red lines along her torso and limbs. She was large, maybe even larger than Optimus, and had no facial features other than a silver faceplate and red visor. The wings on her back and slender, aerodynamic form was a dead giveaway that she was a flyer and the symbol on her chest was a faded Autobot symbol that had seen better days. This femme was definitely a friend!
Bumblebee heard of her during his tenure as an Autobot cadet training under the Throttlebots. She was a former Seeker who was one of the few who defected to join the Autobots after Starscream made the decision to join the Seekers to the Decepticons. She was the great explorer and all around lovers' girl…Skyfire!
"Time to wake up from your beauty sleep, Snow White." Bumblebee said, thinking back on some old fairy tales Gina would regale him with in his off time.
He reached into his chest compartment and took out three vials of high grade energon. They were emergency rations given to all Autobots operating on alien worlds, and were only to be used when cut off from the team in an unfamiliar environment with no access to sources of energon. Each vial of energon was able to last a mechanoid a few months under non-stressful conditions like battle or were wounded. Bumblebee hoped that all three vials at once would be enough to bring the femme out of stasis lock.
Hoping for the best, he injected the energon into the back of Skyfire's neck and waited for her systems to process the life giving liquid. It took a few minutes, but Skyfire's systems rebooted one by one, and when her motor functions began coming to life, she started to move. Her optics came online and the first thing she saw was Bumblebee's face hovering over her.
"Huh…w-what…?" Skyfire groaned. Her voice held a notable accent, one that sounded oddly Australian. Her red visor glowed at she fully awakened and she gingerly sat up on the straining platform.
"Did…anyone get the name of the Dibison that hit me?" She grumbled, rubbing her head and wincing at the creaking in her joints. Then she finally noticed Bumblebee standing next to her. "Bee? Is that you?"
"Yeah, it's me, Skyfire." Bumblebee smiled. The green femme gave a laugh and clapped him on the back.
"Ha! I knew it was you! Still the same lovable little guy!" Skyfire said. "It's good to see you, little dude."
"Same here, Sky." He said. It's been ages since he last saw her. He thought she died on her last expedition.
"Where's Prime and the others? And where the hell are we?" She looked around and saw the burning airships and talos around them. "What's with the junk piles?"
Bumblebee quickly gave Skyfire a summarized version of the events that led to them being on this planet, namely that the war had been going on for four million years, Bumblebee being stationed on Terra and the humans discovering her buried in the ground and were planning to kill her.
"Well damn, that's something else all right. First planet I land on turns out to be home to a race of metal eating cannibals. How swell." Skyfire said cheerfully. "Though I'm struggling to remember how I even got down here."
"Skyfire! My old friend!"
Starscream walked up to them, looking like he had been through hell and back. His body was covered in bullet holes and burnt scorch marks where the missiles scored hits off him. He was gingerly holding his left arm as he tried to look friendly to his former colleague.
"Oh…hey Screamer." Skyfire greeted.
"It's not Screa-" Starscream took a deep breath to calm himself. "It's good to see you, old friend. I was afraid those vile humans had done irreparable damage to you. Quickly, we must leave before more Autobots arrive."
"Screamer, I'm an Autobot." She pointed to the symbol on her chest.
"And I am a Decepticon. But we are both Seekers first and foremost, and Seekers are loyal only to themselves." Starscream said. "Am I wrong?"
"Yeah, you got a point." Skyfire muttered. Bumblebee looked at her worriedly. She wasn't really going to believe Starscream, was she?
Starscream smirked. "Yes, we Seekers are the true power in this war, but our numbers are low and scattered after four million years of war. Let's forget about the bad blood between us and join forces again to rebuild our shared legacy."
"I'd say yes," Skyfire began, reaching behind her back. "But then I remembered how much of a pathological liar you are and how you murdered your sister and sold Vos to the Cons. So…no thanks. I'm good. Here's my resignation."
She pulled out a black particle cannon that unfolded from her back and fired a burst of hot plasma into Starscream's chest before he could react to her refusal. He went flying back and crashed into Skywarp and Thundercracker. Starscream growled and wearily got to his feet.
"You will regret that, Skyfire! Mark my words!" Starscream hissed. "Seekers, retreat!"
"Finally!" Thundercracker grunted.
The Seeker trio transformed in synch and took flight. Skyfire made to fly after them to teach them a lesson she planned for a long time, but she didn't even make it a foot off the ground before landing on her feet. The boosters in her feet and her back thrusters weren't working properly, no doubt because she spent who knows how long stuck in stasis lock without energon. She wasn't going anywhere without transforming.
"I need some new wings. But where to find one…" She trailed off when she saw a mostly intact Hurricane that had survived the aerial massacre from earlier. "That'll do."
Aquarius grunted as she hit a snow pile and kicked a thick ice tendril at Jazz, grazing his leg and forcing him back into a group of Orion talos that fired their kinetic shells at him. Sitting up, she looked over at the airship and saw Bumblebee with the newly awakened Skyfire, and growled. But before she could attack them, she saw something…amazing.
Skyfire fired a green scanning beam from her visor at the jet, downloading a highly detail schematic of the aircraft into her brain and T-Cog. Once she was done scanning the jet, her body began to change. Her old, rusted armor plating reformatted into new pieces of armor, her very structure changing like it was made of liquid metal. Her body's configuration incorporated different, terran parts but remained overall the same as her cybertronian form. The process itself only took a couple of seconds, and soon Skyfire stood strong and tall in her new terra form.
This was an inherent ability in all cybertronians, allowing them to scan new alt modes that were the same relative size and mass as them. The Hurricane aircraft was just right for Skyfire. Skyfire took a moment to admire her new form before leaping off the ground and shifting into a perfect version of the Hurricane VTOL jet, speeding off into the sky after the Seekers.
"So that's how it's done." Aquarius muttered. She smirked and radioed her forces. "All units, fall back. I've seen enough today."
Jazz advanced on her, but she collected all the water around her body into a barrier that swirled around her. Jazz swung his staff, but his weapon passed right through the sphere-and she was gone. Jazz sighed and slumped his shoulders.
"This mission was more trouble than it's worth." Jazz muttered.
XXXXXX
Starscream was livid. To think that he, a proud Seeker of the Decepticons, would be forced to retreat from a bunch of humans! The very thought enraged him beyond reason. His only solace was that Megatron wouldn't know about this, or else he'd be lording his failure around like it was the freaking Matrix!
A loud explosion interrupted his musings and he heard Skywarp cry out behind him. Two missiles hit the purple Seeker in his underside and he went spiraling down to the forest below. Starscream and Thundercracker tightened their formation to close rank.
"What the hell was that?" Thundercracker yelled. A green blur flew past them before four more missiles followed close behind.
The duo managed to avoid getting blown out of the sky by expertly maneuvering away from the missiles and shooting them down, flying higher to return fire of their own. They were unable to properly get a lock on their assailant, who was much faster than them thanks to their injuries hindering their aerial performance. Starscream noticed the green and red color scheme of the aircraft attacking them and growled.
"Skyfire!"
"That's my name, don't wear it out!"
Skyfire nose dived at Thundercracker, who flew straight up at her. When it appeared that the two fighters would collide in mid-air, Skyfire angled her descent so that she was just a few inches above Thundercracker and flew vertically, using her wing to slice cleanly through Thundercracker's left wing. Then she changed to robot mode and fired her particle cannon into him and sent him falling out of the sky in a flaming wreck.
He was smart enough to transform and slow his descent with his thrusters before he crashed through the trees and landed hard on the ground.
"This is what I get for following Starscream!" Thundercracker lamented painfully.
Starscream chased Skyfire around, firing his laser cannons wildly. However, compared to the older and more experienced flyer, Starscream was little more than a protoform with wings. She wasn't even trying to fight back, she was just enjoying throwing Starscream around for a loop without wasting any fuel.
"You're always talking, always laughing, always cracking those annoying jokes that no one even likes!" Starscream yelled. "Why won't you leave me alone?!"
"Because I don't like leaving my trash lying around, Screamer." Skyfire replied.
She transformed and shot at Starscream like a bullet. Starscream panicked, not expecting the move, and tried to evade, but Skyfire's large body slammed into him with the force of a full powered punch from Optimus Prime (and he knew what that felt like). Skyfire grabbed the Seeker and spun him around, throwing him like a Frisbee into the forest below, hearing the satisfying crash of Starscream hitting the ground at full force.
Jazz and Bumblebee watched the aerial battle from the ground with awed looks.
"Wow, I forgot how much of a beast she was in the air." Jazz said.
Skyfire returned to the destroyed camp, landing on the dirty snow with a thump and blowing away the tents near her feet.
"I've wanted to do that for so long." Skyfire said, very pleased with herself.
"That was so cool!" Annie exclaimed as she and Kevin appeared, helping a wounded Grindor along.
Skyfire looked down at them and groaned. "Great, the locals love gratuitous violence. What a wonderful planet this is."
XXXXXX
The appearance of a new yet long lost Autobot was a welcome surprise to Team Prime, but they accepted Skyfire with open arms all the same. Optimus explained to the children that Skyfire was an Autobot explorer who used to be a part of the same unit as Starscream before she quit and joined the Autobots when the Decepticons were conquering territories.
Skyfire took some time in the CR chamber and stepped out looking and feeling fresh and new. She looked at her refection and whistled. "I look gorgeous. Better than I've ever been."
"I'm glad to see that you're fully operational, Skyfire." Optimus said. "But we have to know-how did you come to be on Terra?"
"It wasn't by choice, mind you. I was stationed at the Kimia Facility to test out some new fold technology for personal use. It was reverse-engineered by those tech-heads from Skywarp's teleportation powers. I used it once, sent myself Primus knows how many light years through space and flew straight into this planet's orbit. Gravity did the rest and knocked me out when I hit the ground."
"Would've thought a sturdy femme like you could've weathered that fall, at least without going into stasis." Bulkhead said.
"That stupid fold drive drained most of my energy and I used the rest for my personal shielding when I fell from orbit. It's only thanks to my dense armor that it didn't burn up in the fall." She said dryly.
"Well, we are glad to have you on the team, Skyfire." Optimus said and held out a hand, which Skyfire shook gratefully.
"Glad to be here, Prime. But I was thinking about flying around this rock, see the sights and all that." she noticed the looks she was getting an added, "I'll keep an eye out for anything strange and call in regularly. I promise-Seeker's honor."
"We'll take that at face value." Prowl said.
Skyfire gave him what could've been a grin and she went to the ground bridge, only to feel a tap on her foot. She looked down and saw Comettor standing down there. "What's up, little guy?"
"Can…can I come with you? I've always wanted to be partnered with a Seeker!" Comettor requested excitedly. "You know…before they turned bad."
"Well if it's alright with Sparky here." Skyfire looked at Sparkplug, who nodded, despite his displeasure with the nickname.
"Don't worry, he can go. Just be sure to take good care of him." He said.
"Will do, Sparky." Skyfire looked at Arcee and winked, or gave what was supposed to be a wink with her visor, at her. "Call me, Pinky."
Arcee grunted and rolled her eyes.
Comettor changed forms and linked up with Skyfire as the femme walked into the ground bridge and disappeared into the portal. Annie shook her head.
"I am so getting flying sessions from her." She said smiling. She turned to Kevin. "I think I'm ready for that report now. You game?"
Kevin smirked. "Always."
XXXXXX
Aquarius was in her safe house awaiting additional OZ forces to help transport her and what remained of her forces back to HQ. Aquarius sat in her chair watching the recording of Skyfire's scanning the jet. It was almost magical in how the femme just changed into a perfect replica of the aircraft with the ease of a chameleon changing its skin. She never thought they could do something like this.
"Aries was right, the cybertronians are not something to be underestimated." Aquarius muttered. She tapped a key and brought up a picture of Annie and Kevin with Grindor, taken by a hidden camera in her tent. "And it would seem we are not the only humans they've encountered."