Warning: a bit more of that mechanical gore in this chapter

~blah~ is comm-speak ; blah is Cybertronian

Disclaimer: All recognisable characters, places, etc. belong to HasTak and other copyright holders. I make no profit from this.

Chapter 6: Battle at the Ark

Prowl did not like to analyse a plan's effectiveness until a battle was over, but this one had started auspiciously and their tiny force of defenders were doing considerably better than they had any right to be.

Sunstreaker's shot with the magnetic pulse cannon had disrupted the connection between Scrapper and Long Haul, and Devastator had fallen apart - a real shame that that took so long to reload, but they all knew its limits. As soon as the pulse hit, Jazz had launched a barrage of concussion grenades which had fritzed many of the Constructicons' systems and sent them crashing to the ground in an ungainly heap. Then, before they could regroup, Prowl had deployed smoke bombs to obscure the battle zone which meant the Constructicons could not see their foes, and the sensor disruptor Jazz had set up had kept anyone from scanning anything so the enemy had no idea how thinly the Autobot forces were spread. The disruptor was an undeniable blessing, but Prowl still intended to follow up on why Bumblebee of all mechs had had it in his possession and what exactly he had been doing with it. Later. If, indeed, there was a later.

The problem was that it was six against three. Worse, it was six very angry Decepticons who did not care if they got damaged against three very desperate Autobots who could not afford to take more than minimal injuries. Still, they were far from beaten. If Prowl had to be left with anyone in this dire situation of mech-on-mech, Sunstreaker would always have been a good choice choice. And there was one more line of defence: if it came down to it, Jazz could blow up the entire mountain side, burying the Ark's exposed areas and thus buying the medics more time for reinforcements to arrive.

Given the likelihood that they may have to resort to those tactics, he had ordered Jazz to stay by the Ark's entrance, which left only him and Sunstreaker playing a very dangerous game of hit and run in the smoke.

One factor in their favour, he considered as he fired a shot towards an identifiable noise, was that the Constructicons seemed to feel the need to keep up a running commentary of curses at their predicament. That meant that he could confidently target them without needing to see them. A short yell told him that his shot had hit its mark and pounding steps gave chase, but he was already on the move; there was no point staying where he might be found. Further away, he heard a growl that he recognised as Sunstreaker just before a loud crash. Avoiding the area so not to get caught up in it, he moved on towards another voice.

"Long Haul! We've got to regroup!"

Moving closer, he waited until he could make out a form in the smoke, then shot. Then jogged quietly off on an angle and modulated his vocaliser.

"Long Haul!"

He dared not say too much, but it should be enough just to call random names. After all, they would not expect their enemies to call to them. Hopefully. To be fair, the Constructicons were smarter than most of the Decepticons.

As he moved, he realised that he was beginning to see further. The smoke was starting to thin; his cover would be gone soon so he needed to act fast. Moving to a new location, he called out again.

"Long Haul!"

"Hook?" a querying response came from nearby.

"Over here!" the real Hook called grumpily.

Prowl smirked and raised his gun. But before he could shoot, a tall form launched out of the greyness and attacked the Combaticon in front of him. Backing hurriedly away, Prowl began looking for some cover. Finding a small depression, he oriented himself and found that he was at the eastern end of the third defensive trench outside the Ark. Yet two steps in, he realised he was not alone. He started to raise his gun again, then dropped it again quickly as he recognised the other who was also startled.

"Prowl?"

"Sunstreaker." He gestured to the rifle aimed at him. "If you don't mind?"

This was a concern, though. If Sunstreaker was here, then who had that been up there? It hadn't been Jazz; of that much he could be certain.

Wishing he were a little taller, he turned to Sunstreaker.

"Someone else is up there. Can you identify? Is it Sideswipe?"

Sunstreaker looked startled, then scowled.

"It'd better slagging well not be."

"Aerialbots!" one of the Constructicons cried suddenly. "Quick - form Devastator again!"

"Oh slag." Sunstreaker muttered.

Prowl felt much the same, but just checked his remaining ordnance.

"We must keep them out of the Ark. Understood?"

Sunstreaker nodded and began checking his own inventory, and Prowl steadied himself. All going badly, this could well be his last fight, but he was not going to be taken down easily.

"Very well. No stopping until they are gone."

~Sides!~

Sideswipe jumped a little at the totally unexpected ping, glanced down guiltily to check that he had not mucked anything up, then looked away again with a grimace as his optics took in a completely exposed CPU with all colours of fluids in varying states of liquidity smeared over the circuitry and a growing hole where First Aid was carefully cutting away struts and supports to get at the damaged area from an oblique angle. It wasn't a pretty sight, and he looked away quickly again. He wasn't usually squeamish, but it was different when he was trying to kill someone; knowing that this was the inside of a friend's head made things very different.

~Sideswipe?~ the call repeated urgently.

~Sunny. What's wrong?~

~Tell me you're still in the bay.~

~Yeah, I am. Why? You need me? I'll come...~

~No. Nothing. Thought you were out here trying to get your aft shot off.~

~What's going on out there?~

~Nothing. Just some Cons. We've got it under control. Stay inside, okay? Bad enough I'm getting my paintjob dirty.~

Then the connection was gone, blocked off at Sunstreaker's end as completely as it had been before. Frustrated, Sideswipe looked over at First Aid, very careful not to look down.

"Uh, do you think...?" he began.

"Don't move."

"I know but maybe someone else could take over and I could go check what's happening...?"

"Prowl told you to stay here. Now please stop talking to me, I need to concentrate."

Sideswipe gave in. Nothing he said was going to change anything anyway, and he did not want to distract First Aid into making a mistake that might hurt Ratchet. Promising himself that he would get a full explanation from Sunstreaker the minute he got free from this room, he was about to shutter his optics again when Ratchet's body spasmed, nearly jerking out of his grip entirely.

"What the...?"

First Aid had pulled away quickly and was now grabbing something out of a drawer.

"Hold him still! Hoist - give us a hand, hold his legs down."

"What's going on?" Sideswipe demanded.

"It's reflexive movement." First Aid assured him. "He doesn't know what he's doing."

Sideswipe stared at him, horrified. It had never occurred to him that Ratchet might be aware of what they were doing to him. Casting about himself, he suddenly realised that there were no sensory blockers attached to the CMO. There were four on Wheeljack, plus a tube of that purple stuff he recognised from prior injuries he had suffered himself. It flowed straight into the energon line and dampened your sensors when you were in severe pain, but there was no similar line set up for Ratchet. He started to tremble. First Aid was doing open CPU surgery without pain control?

"Hold still, Sideswipe!" First Aid snapped, hands busy doing... something... with a pair of pliers and a small diversion circuit. "It's gone into the section that controls reflexes, but every time he moves it could do more damage and you moving about like that isn't helping."

"He... he's not... can he feel this?" he stammered.

First Aid's absentminded denial was a profound relief.

"No, he's in stasis lock. This is just reflex and... ah. Got it."

Ratchet suddenly went still, and First Aid tightened the connections to the circuitry then set the pliers aside.

"Now keep him completely still, I'm going to try to remove the bar. I've relieved enough pressure that it should come out without pulling anything with it, but we may still have to do this in stages."

Please, Sideswipe prayed as another tremor went through the ship. Please, Primus, see us all through this.

Standing in Devastator's shadow, Jazz stared up at the two gestalts who were wrestling nearby. It was not a position he would have chosen, but there were never any good positions during a gestalt tussle; either could be thrown or fall or stumble at any moment, and the damage could occur in any direction. Long and bitter experience of lost comades told him there was no point moving about. Besides, someone had to guard the Ark's entrance in case there were other Decepticons about who might use this distraction to slip inside.

A figure approached from his right and his hands tensed on the rifle then relaxed again. It was just Prowl. That was the problem with the signal jammer: there was no way to immediately identify friend from foe, you had to double-check your targets. Of course, no amount of jamming could make him mistake his bondmate for anyone else, but they had not kept their secret for this long by being careless, so he held his pose a few clicks longer even though he was fairly sure there was no-one else nearby. Only when Prowl had growled out his identification and stepped into view did he lower the weapon and nod towards the battle zone.

"Looks like th'cavalry arrived just in time."

Prowl stopped beside him, frowning as the gestalts tore at each other and staggered slightly further away.

"They were not expecting to find us such an easy target." he muttered worriedly.

Jazz looked at the other mech incredulously.

"You think this was easy!"

"We have held our own, but if they had sent Ravage or Frenzy along with Devastator, or if they had made a full-on offensive attack as soon as they were separated, we would be in a great deal more trouble. This attack was not intended to succeed, only to distract. It is merely their good fortune that we are under-strength here."

They both flinched slightly as a stray blast from Devastator's cannon hit the dirt not too far from where they were standing, but they held their ground.

"Well sure. But we know that already, they're attacking the factory. This is a diversion from that."

"No. Devastator turned up far too late for that, and would not have been a significantly large threat to prevent a force going to the factory even if he had arrived before we got that report."

"Then doesn't that mean that this is the main target?" Jazz frowned, completely confused now.

"Logic would dictate that they cannot know about our current situation, so there is no reason for them to believe we would leave the Ark undefended. And indeed, if they did know our situation it is likely they would have sent a larger force to ensure their victory here. Thus this is not the major objective. Therefore, it seems likely that there is a third target of which we are currently unaware."

"Three simultaneous attacks?" Jazz asked dubiously. "Not really Meg-head's style. You don't think...?"

He cut himself off, swinging up his rifle and aiming at the two figures approaching through the smoke.

"Identify!"

"Hot Spot and Sunstreaker." the response came immediately.

He recognised the voice, but kept his rifle aimed until they were both clearly visible.

"Any sign of my team yet?" Hot Spot asked

"Should there be?" Prowl asked.

"Silverbolt told me he'd called them to follow, but of course his team moves faster. They should be here soon, though."

Prowl considered that, then turned to Jazz.

"Give your rifle to Sunstreaker and go back to the command room. See if there is any contact yet, or any data on the third target. Hot Spot, I want details on all the comm chatter you picked up; I need to know what's happening."

"Third target?" Sunstreaker asked, curious.

Jazz just sighed and handed him the rifle. Comm duty. Slag, but he hated comm duty.

A/N: in case you missed them, there are two side fics this week - one in Prism (chapter 10) and one in Prowl and Jazz challenges (chapter 28). I recommend reading in that order.