VIII - Triage
Ratchet stepped out of a ground bridge and into a clearing surrounded by a sparse pine forest where Wheeljack's ship, the Jackhammer, sat. The Wrecker himself leaned against it, playing catch with a grenade as birds chirped overhead and Ratchet strode towards him.
"The boss thought you needed backup, huh?" The white mech smirked, clipping the grenade on his hip. "I have to admit, with the new additions to our ranks, I figured one of them former 'Cons would be flying with you, not me."
"They are otherwise engaged, and if you must know," Ratchet frowned, the ground bridge closing behind him, "Optimus feels strongly that you require supervision." He poked Wheeljack in his chest plate.
"I'm sure it's not the other way around, doc." He smirked. "Shouldn't you be beating someone to health with one of your magic wrenches?"
"Don't call me doc." Ratchet shot back cooly.
"Sure thing, chief." Wheeljack smirked. The medic growled in wry frustration and boarded the Jackhammer. His fingertips ghosted across the controls, but Wheeljack pulled him back, "Easy there, tiger. I'll handle the flying."
Ratchet quietly grumbled to himself and sank down in the copilot's chair. "I will never forgive you if you even think of doing a barrel roll."
"Thanks for the idea, doc."
"My name is not 'doc,' it is 'Ratchet'!" The medic bristled.
Wheeljack ignored him, maneuvering the ship into the air so it zipped above the treetops. "So, all of Team Prime's busy hunting down these four Iacon relics?" he asked, glancing at the medic.
"Would it kill you to keep your servos on the controls?" Ratchet shot back. The Wrecker sarcastically gripped the controls tightly like a textbook driver. "And yes, we are chasing down the four which are currently in play."
"There's more?"
"Megatron maintains possession of the entire Iacon database," the medic reminded him, "we have yet to learn how many relics or Decepticon weapons have been hidden away on this planet."
"Say," Wheeljack looked as if an idea had just struck him, "Ol' Screamy was a loyal 'Con not too long ago, do you think he'd know how many of them there are? Maybe even where to find a few of 'em?"
"I find that scenario unlikely," Ratchet countered, "and not just because he has never been completely loyal to Megatron." Wheeljack rolled his optics and the medic pretended to not notice. "Before he joined us months ago, Starscream had been rogue for quite some time. I am sure he knew of the Iacon database when he was still under Megatron's tyranny, but that was before they had any means of decoding its contents."
Wheeljack frowned and shrugged, "It was worth a shot. But speaking of 'Cons," an alarm began to chirp shrilly, "we got incoming."
"Soundwave." Ratchet raised out of his seat and looked at the screen beneath the ship's windshield.
"Megatron's communication's chief, huh. I think we should send him a message." The white mech smirked, throwing a couple switches, "Doc, you might want to hold onto something." Before he could get a reply from the medic, he jerked the controls. Ratchet gasped at the sudden jolt as the ship did a sudden one-eighty so it faced Soundwave.
"I told you no barrel rolls!"
Wheeljack grinned and leaned forwards towards the glass, flipping out the blasters on the ship's hull.
"Are you trying to send us to the scrap yard?" Ratchet snapped, clutching the metal armrests of his seat so hard that he dented them.
"Maybe I'm trying to get you to loosen up a little."
"This is not the time for chitchat!"
Wheeljack decided to take that as a challenge, "Why, sure it is!" He chased Soundwave into a cloud, then shot out of it, but the blue mech was nowhere to be seen. The white mech punched a few things on the console in front of him.
"What are you doing now?"
"You'll see."
Ratchet studied the screen, "Did you just–"
"Yup. Hey 'Wave, if you're listening, come get some. There's plenty of hurt for everyone," the white mech smirked. Ratchet gawked at Wheeljack as he spun the ship around and punched a button on the console, shutting off the broadcast.
"What in the Allspark was that?!"
Wheeljack didn't even glance at him, "Shortwave FM radio. Works like a charm."
"But–you–do you not realize that you have just revealed our location anyone who would want it?!"
"That was the idea, smart guy. But the only bot in the area that'd want our gears for breakfast is the one we're after."
Soundwave dropped out of a dense cloud above them, weaving in and out of blaster fire. Suddenly something large detached from his hull and shot backwards toward the Jackhammer.
"What was that?" Wheeljack asked, straining to see.
"Laserbeak," Ratchet answered, "Soundwave's surveillance drone." Laserbeak wove around in the air behind Wheeljack's ship, rapidly shooting red plasma at them. The Wrecker did a barrel roll to avoid the shots, which Ratchet clearly wasn't pleased about.
Soundwave suddenly banked and flew off at a downward angle, vanishing off the Jackhammer's radar.
"Wheeljack, maintain pursuit! Soundwave is merely using the drone to distract us." Ratchet ordered, unwisely getting out of his seat again.
The white mech pushed his ship to go faster, "I welcome a good distraction."
"This is no time for games!"
"Then why is he trying to push my buttons?" Wheeljack executed a flip and they ended up behind the drone, blasters blazing. Laserbeak managed to dodge their shots, and they all zipped into another cloud.
"Now will you go after Soundwave?" Ratchet insisted as they jetted out of the cloud, Laserbeak nowhere to be seen.
But then the drone appeared far in front of them, shooting out of another cloud, flying straight at the Jackhammer. They both opened fire, rapidly closed in on each other.
"What are you doing!" Ratchet gasped, bracing for impact as the drone bore down on them. "WHEELJACK!"
Wheeljack's answer was a war cry and he pushed the Jackhammer's blasters to fire faster. Laserbeak flew downwards, just out of his crosshairs and the white mech took off in pursuit, leaving Ratchet to lurch back against his seat.
"Not this time!" Wheeljack shouted, blasting the ship's thrusters. Laserbeak once again wound up in its crosshairs. The Wrecker fired, and a shot of blue plasma wedded the Cassetticon's wing. It began to spiral down towards the forest beneath them. "Choke on that, 'Con!" He whooped, pumping a fist.
"You did it!" Ratchet exclaimed as if he couldn't believe it. But suddenly the ship lurched forwards. "What was that?"
"We've been hit, probably by a stray shot. " Wheeljack announced grimly. The ship wobbled in the air, its thrusters belching out black smoke as it began a rapid descent. "We may be in for a rough landing."
"This is your fault!" Ratchet snapped, "If you hadn't acted so rashly, we could have followed Soundwave and retrieved the relic instead of going on this absurd wild goose hunt!"
"I think the phrase is 'wild goose chase.'"
"Aha! So you–" the Jackhammer lurched sideways, flipping end over end before Wheeljack managed to right it.
Wheeljack wrestled with the controls, "If you'd hush up, I would be having a better time landing her."
Ratchet, being the smart mech he was, grit his denta and braced for impact. The ship smashed through the treeline and dug a furrow in the dirt before coming to a complete stop. The two mechs staggered out, waving smoke away from their faceplates.
"Ugh," Wheeljack huffed, standing behind the Jackhammer, "left thruster's fried."
"We need to resume our search immediately, Soundwave is no doubt nearly reaching the relic as we speak!" Ratchet exclaimed urgently.
"She's not going anywhere," Wheeljack stated, jerking a thumb at the smoking form of the Jackhammer behind him, "if we're gonna get that relic, we need to roll." At that, he promptly transformed, Ratchet following behind him. The pair drove off, engine noise fading to nothing beneath the small clouds of dust their wheels kicked up. They vanished into the lengthening shadows of a high cliff face as the sun dipped further beneath the horizon.
Neither of them noticed Laserbeak struggling and shooting sparks on the ground a few meters off to the side of the ship, the tip of its left wing missing and a charred stump in its place.
Soundwave transformed and alighted on top of a rocky outcropping which jutted above the dense forest like a sore thumb, mountains cupping it. His sensors chirped, indicating that the relic he sought was just beneath his pedes, entombed in the mountain on which he stood. The silent mech's long, tentacle-like arms shot out of his chest plate, their tips spinning fast enough to mimic drills. Without hesitation, he plunged them into the rock.
Suddenly he straightened up as his scanners detected something else… two enemy signals, fast approaching. The silent mech inclined his helm slightly as the clawed tip of one of his arms hit something beneath the ground. He swiftly and carefully extracted it, holding it high just as the two Autobots drove out from behind a cliff face to meet him. He attached the device to his arm and sprung backwards as Wheeljack transformed and rushed at him, dual swords flashing. Ratchet hung back closer towards the cliff face, ready to jump in if he was needed. He knew full well that he was not a fighter, and if he joined in, would most likely be a distraction and hindrance for Wheeljack. So he waited for the perfect opportunity to arise, as they always did.
Soundwave deflected the Wrecker's swipes while hurriedly trying to discern what exactly the relic was by comparing it to his short extent of knowledge of what the mysterious vaults beneath Iacon had contained. It didn't come up with a match, and he canceled the search in frustration. He could tell it was a weapon and which end he should keep pointed away from him, but not much more.
Wheeljack backed away from him as the silent mech's tentacle arms slithered back into his chest plate and he took on a better suited fighting stance. Soundwave was already running algorithms on how the fight could play out, interchanging variables based on what he knew of Wheeljack and Ratchet, all the while watching the Wrecker with a calculating, unreadable stare from his visor. The Autobots' medic didn't seem eager intervene, and Soundwave was fine with that. It took one less variable out of his mess of equations.
"This should be fun." Wheeljack smirked, charging once again. Soundwave pushed the algorithms to the back of his processor and raised his arm, firing a pulse from the relic. A sharp ringing noise rang out, and the Wrecker stumbled backwards as if receiving a blow to his chest.
Soundwave now knew what this device was: a resonance blaster, capable of emitting frequencies that could do much more damage than shatter glass; they could split steel. But Wheeljack wasn't deterred, ducking another, louder blast from the device and darted forwards, trying to slash and stab Soundwave with his twin swords. However, they were evenly matched, Soundwave managed to dodge every attempt and tried to inflict his own, but Wheeljack kept pressing.
The Wrecker finally made a mistake, trying to stab Soundwave's chest plate, aiming for his spark chamber while leaving his own wide open. The blue mech whirled and Wheeljack's sword was suddenly pinned between the silent mech's torso and left arm. The white mech tried to pull it free but Soundwave was faster, jerking it out of his grip with a sharp twist of his elbow joint. His tentacle-like arms shot out of his chest plate and slammed into the white mech. Wheeljack skidded backwards, teetering on the edge of the cliff before regaining his balance while Soundwave examined the sword. It was one-handed but not clearly made specifically for a left or right servo.
The white mech roared, clutching his remaining sword in a death grip while he charged at Soundwave. The blue mech swiftly threw his sword end over end at Wheeljack's helm on a path that would certainly not miss, but the Wrecker slashed it out of the air and kept coming.
One of Soundwave's tentacle arms once again shot out of his chest plate, this time firmly attaching to the Wrecker's helm. Wheeljack struggled viciously as he was raised into the air, managing to nick the arm with the tip of his sword, but was unable to inflict more damage. The blue mech slammed him down against the edge of the cliff face, powering up his new weapon.
Then something hit the silent mech from behind. Hard. He whirled around, coming visor-to-faceplates with Ratchet, and his arm was pulled back to deliver another harsh punch. Wheeljack tore Soundwave's arm off his faceplates and sprang back to his pedes, butting his helm against the blue mech's visor. A web of cracks appeared over it and he staggered back towards Ratchet, who punched him from behind.
"There I go again, shattering expectations." The Wrecker smirked, raising his fists.
Soundwave pointed the resonance blaster at Ratchet, blasting him with a frequency so high that the medic's audials shorted in and out. Wheeljack yelled at Soundwave, drawing the silent mech's attention onto him and firing bolts of plasma from his blaster. Soundwave took a hit, staggering backwards a couple steps to the edge of the cliff face. Wheeljack took advantage of this, rushing forwards and tackled the blue mech off the cliffside.
"NO!" Ratchet shouted over the ringing in his audials and he dashed over to the edge and looked down, afraid of what he might find.
The Wrecker stood over Soundwave's prone form as his visor stared up at him. "Any last words?" The white mech sneered beneath his faceguard as Soundwave stared down the barrel of his blaster. "Right, the silent type."
"Wheeljack!" Ratchet yelled again, "Behind you!"
The Wrecker spun around to see one of Soundwave's tentacles raised high above his helm. Right as a high frequency from the resonance blaster met his audials. He staggered away from Soundwave, clutching the sides of his helm in a death grip. Ratchet's pede slipped and he fell off the cliff, landing in a small plume of dust next to Wheeljack and laid there, groaning. The two Autobots' optics flickered off.
Soundwave didn't need to feel for the beat of their sparks to know that they were still functioning. But then a familiar sound pinged his scanners, and he strode a few paces away, lost in tangles of data. Laserbeak was back online.
The blue mech didn't notice Ratchet, who had feigned unconsciousness, quietly creeping up behind him. Soundwave transformed and the medic lunged forwards, fingers scrabbling for purchase on his wing. The silent mech flipped upside down in the air and proceeded to perform dizzying corkscrews, but Ratchet managed to hold on. Thousands of years as a medic had given him a firm grip and steady servos, along with a stubbornness that made him a force to be reckoned with.
"Hey, doc?" Wheeljack groaned into a comm as Soundwave spiraled higher and higher into the sky.
"I am a bit busy!" Ratchet shouted over the wind across the link.
"Look up."
First, Ratchet had to distinguish the sky from the ground. Once he was sure which way was up, he strained his neck cables, hoping for a better view that Soundwave would not allow him to get.
The Nemesis cruised high above them, its massive shadow swallowing up the forest beneath the setting sun.
"Wh-what is Megatron doing here?!" Ratchet exclaimed, adjusting his grip on Soundwave's wing when his fingers had begun to slip.
"Don't know. But we'd better clear outta here, because I don't think ol' Bucket Head's gonna be too happy."
Ratchet snarled in frustration, grinding his denta and drew his arm back to punch Soundwave, but then he thought better of it. If the medic knocked the blue mech out of the air, he would go down too and they both would be scrapped. No, best to stick along and enjoy the ride, that is, if he wasn't bucked off. If he could just find the resonance blaster…
Soundwave knew Wheeljack was not far behind when he transformed above the crash site of the Autobots' vessel in the forest. He flung Ratchet off of him and gave the medic a harsh kick for good measure, landing lightly on the hard-packed dirt and walking towards Laserbeak. The Cassetticon struggled on the ground a few paces away, fluttering weakly, but unable to fly until it received repairs. Soundwave gingerly picked it up and it transformed back around his chest plate.
He silently watched Ratchet beneath the rising moon and the Nemesis soaring overhead, wishing to end this, here and now. But he knew Megatron would not approve. Ratchet had made it personal between the two of them. He, after all, was the one who stormed into an energon mine just to find Megatron and give the warlord a good punch square in the faceplates so hard that it left the latter leaking energon.
Ratchet had unfinished matters with Soundwave's master, and the blue mech was going to let Megatron finish them. He raised the resonance blaster and fired a pulse just on the border of bestowing one with processor damage. The medic crumpled to his knees, not even having enough time to cry out. Soundwave opened a ground bridge and began to drag the medic's unconscious chassis to it. He wasn't faking this time. The bridge led to the Nemesis' brig, hovering hundreds of feet above them.
"Ratchet!" Wheeljack shouted, charging out of the forest. Soundwave sped up, but his frame wasn't as strong as Megatron's, and Ratchet was a ground-based vehicle. Those were almost always denser than fliers, if not from parts, then from the sheer pounds of dirt that probably got stuck between their plating. The blue mech tugged Ratchet through the portal and onto the Nemesis. The bridge closed behind them, inches from Wheeljack's outstretched fingertips. The white mech let out a roar that relieved the trees of birds for miles.
"Ah, the resonance blaster." Megatron purred, holding the device up to the dim light aboard his warship. "Crafted by Decepticon scientists for maximum sonic devastation. Soundwave, you have performed admirably. You brought me not only a relic I sought, but also a prisoner, whom we shall put to valuable use," he congratulated while facing his TIC, whose helm was erect with pride and satisfaction. "Unlike Dreadwing here, who somehow managed to lose the Apex Armor to Starscream and the Autobots!" The blue Seeker wilted beneath his glare next to Soundwave. "However, two more decrypted coordinates remain in play, and I have every confidence that Knock Out and–"
"Can you believe what they did to me!" Said red mech walked into the room, pointing frantically at a few scuff marks across his chest plate.
Megatron couldn't care less, stalking over to him. "Did you retrieve the relic?!"
Knock Out bit his lip angrily, "No, my liege."
"Then I suggest you remind me of your usefulness by examining Laserbeak, doctor." The warlord's tone could have turned water to ice.
Soundwave padded over to the infuriated medic. Knock Out examined it with a trained optic, "I would like to get a look at its wiring, but it should only require a few minor repairs." he spat through gritted denta.
Megatron seemed content with his answer for the moment, "Soundwave, if we are to maintain any advantage over the Autobots, decoding the remainder of the Iacon database must remain your top priority, understood?"
The blue mech nodded.
"Knock Out," the warlord turned to the medic, "See to it that you fix Soundwave's cracked visor, and that you have a little chat with our new prisoner."
Knock Out inclined his helm, transforming out a drill, "I can be most persuasive," he smirked before transforming it away.
"Stop your preening! Am I clear?"
"Any more and you would be invisible."
"Learn to hold your glossa." Megatron growled quietly, turning around and already walking away.
"Apologies, my lord." Knock Out hissed.
The red mech watched Megatron stride away with a furious optic, listening to the tic tic tic of Soundwave typing away at a console. The blue mech could wait, seeing as he already was trying to crack another set of coordinates. Knock Out had something he needed to crack as well. He planned on having more than a "chat" with the Autobot medic.
He ran off to the med bay, snagging his shock prod, his buffer, which he tucked between his thigh plating, and a few other tidbits of this and that.
The red mech stopped in front of a mirror, beyond nervous and afraid of what he was about to attempt. He stared himself in the optic, squared his shoulders and stepped out of the med bay, trying not to look conspicuous. Primus forbid.
He strolled off at a brisk, but not hurried pace towards the ship's brig where Ratchet was being kept. With any luck, the old 'Bot would be conscious, making things go so much more smoothly.
Knock Out remembered the look in Seven's optics right after he stabbed the shock prod into his intake. He shivered. That was an instance he would rather forget. Seven's expression was identical to the one he–well, Starscream always wore right before Megatron delivered the final blow in another of his "lessons." He knew because he always watched those proceedings, not because he enjoyed it, no, he never would, but to step in if things became particularly bad on the the Seeker's part. He had to do it a handful of times, each was an experience he would rather have forgotten. And still, Knock Out had tried to kill Seven. Sure, he was Starscream's clone, but that didn't make a difference. What made a difference was that this time, Knock Out would be in front of the weapon instead of behind it.
The red mech's steps gained a new sense of purpose as confidence began to course through his veins. For once in his function, he was going to make something right. And anyone who got in his way could go blow themselves to Pit.
A/N: Knock Out has plans... plans you shall discover... read on...