So, once again I owe all my readers a huge apology for my late posting. I have no excuses as I finished handwriting it around the 20th of January and just never got around to typing it up.
Therefore, there will be this post, AND another post for February.
Warnings: short chapter is short.
Enjoy!
Chapter 9:
The Rust Sea. A festering wound left to infection from the time of Unicron, it was a vast roiling, orange blemish on the side of Primus' body. Feared by most Cybertronians as a source of plague and disease, it was avoided by all. Or at least almost all. The aquatic and amphibious frames could tell amazing stories of vast ecosystems beneath the opaque waves. The average Cybertronian would scoff at their obvious insanity and move on, completely disregarding how these Rust Sea nomads could possible know of this.
When the Autobot Ops Division began planning excursions into the deeper parts of Decepticon territory they were constantly hampered by this great body of fluidic rust. Until one orn when a well-placed, i.e. lost, agent stumbled across one of the nomadic camps. The free-sparked mecha had welcomed the wayward spy with open arms and sheltered for the dark-cycle. It was during the ornly shindig, after copious amounts of homebrewed highgrade had been consumed, that the aquatic-formers began to share their tales. Now, this particular opsmech was smarter than most, and did not dismiss the stories as highgrade delusions. No, instead he waited until morning when the camp was sober and asked them to show him these wonders. They had fervently agreed with the proposal and began the preparations for a community swim.
Being dumped helm first into an oil bath had not been an expected step for the ops agent, but as the aquatics explained, the oil, derived from rendered chromeshark, would protect the divers from the rust for a full orn.
The undersea habitats were as marvelous as promised, but it was the treasure of the oil that the spy brought back to the Autobots.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Jazz was not one for history files, but as team finished pulling themselves out of the rusty liquid he could not help sending down a prayer of thanks to that nameless spy for his forward thinking. The Decepticons had never explored the reasoning behind the aquaticformers legends and therefore would never think to look for escaping Autobot spies in a deadly ocean. The last the saboteur had seen of their pursuers, they were turning west through the wastes bordering the sea.
The Autobots checked one another over for rust spots and clinging critters then did the same for their still unconscious seekerling. Then they dashed off to their hidden shuttle. Provided they did not run into any 'Con patrols, they would be back in Iacon in a few joors.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Sunstorm opened his optics and blinked in the bright lights. Once his optics recovered from being nearly blinded he could see that he was on a really comfy berth in a big white room filled with other berths. The room smelled of antiseptic and there was lots of equipment tucked between the berths. For a short moment he panicked, thinking that he was still in the Purple Maker's lab, but the lab technician that rushed over to him had the same red symbol as his rescuers.
It dawned upon the seekerling that he must be with the Autobots. He had fallen into temporary stasis after melting that wall, so he did not get to see their return to Iacon. He felt vaguely disappointed by that, but it was overshadowed by the abandonment he felt. He knew that the adult mechs probably had a lot to do and could not stay with him all orn. He had, however, hoped that they would be there when he woke up.
A big white and red mech approached his berth while he was moping and began to speak to him. "Hello little one, I'm Ratchet, the Chief Medical Officer for the Autobots. It's good to see you awake, you were quite low on energon when Bumblebee brought you in. We've topped off your tanks and checked you over thoroughly. If you don't have any warnings or alerts popping up we can begin getting you out of here and into your new life of freedom."
The doctor's tone was soft, assured, and it soothed Sunstorm's frayed sensors. Then what he said registered. The little seeker in-vented frantically. "No! I can't have a full tank! You gotta take some out! I'm too dangerous when I'm above thirty percent!"
Ratchet put a gentle servo on the youngling's shoulder. "I did an in-depth scan myself after Jazz reported what you can do, and from what I can tell, unless you choose to expel radiation, you won't. Proof positive of that is that you have not burned me yet. Either before or after regaining consciousness."
The youngling looked down at the servo contact in shocked wonder and began to question what else the Purple Maker had said that might be a lie.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Shortly after beginning the standard ops debrief Blackshot realized that the whole of Command needed to hear the report first-servo.
Because of the sensitivity of the report, Command received the rare invitation to gather in one of the Ops planning rooms. The officers trickled in one by one and stood by the usual rankings, as there were no chairs. The Prime and Prowl were the last, and Jazz fought down a twinge of sad jealousy at how close their helms were, the two discussing some thing on Prowl's datapad.
The Polyhexian stood with his team in the middle of the room with an idling holoprojector between them. When the full complement of expected attendees was reached Jazz got the go-ahead nod from Blackshot.
The saboteur cued up the first of his stolen prizes and began. "A few joors ago mah team n' Ah returned from Kaon, depths o' tha underworld n' unspark o' tha Unmaker, with potentialleh devestatin' news. We were tasked wit' findin' tha source o' tha 'Cons new weapon n' tha masterplan fo' Megatron's new campaign. We succeeded in both.
"As ya c'n see by dis map, Megatron is plannin' a progress've sweep across tha lower half o' tha planet wit' tha intent ta kill us off piecemeal. Every stronghold he takes is immediately meched by Shockwave's drones, leavin tha armeh intact fo' tha next battle."
Optimus raised a servo to pause the debriefing. "Prowl, this data is yours to deal with, completion of Megatron's campaign is not to be allowed. In the past I have always asked of you to find strategies that would result in the least loss of sparks, this has hampered you greatly, I know. I ask you to do so again, but all other limiters I remove from you."
Prowl acknowledged his orders, and having already begun the preliminary stages in suspicion of this very result, he began to work the stolen knowledge into his counter-campaign's framework.
Optimus nodded for Jazz to continue and the saboteur complied. "Kay, so, we also managed ta acquire tha data fo' tha 'Cons new weapon."
Wheeljack could be seen rubbing his servos together in anticipation and it made Jazz smile, he really hated to burst the engineer's bubble. "As it turned out, tha weapon was'a sparklin'."
The proverbial gears could fairly be heard screaming to a halt as everyone registered that. Then the yelling started.
"What do you mean it was a sparkling?!"
"Low down, pitscrap, worthless, rust bucket, gear-lickin', gits of a prostibot!"
"Where did they even get a sparkling in the first place?"
The last question came from Thundercall, the Autobot Air Commander. He and his trine were full-sparked seekers and had the typical highly protective subroutines demanding safety for all sparklings and younglings. Jazz almost cringed knowing what he was going to have to tell them.
"Shockwave cloned'em. Tha bitlet n' 'bout a hundred otha's were cloned from a stolen piece o' Starscream's spark. Shockers then played around wit' tha natural frequencies o' tha little sparks, manipulating their frames, n' generally did a lot o' unacceptable thing ta 'em, until onleh tha one sparklin' was left. Tha one who survived has a artific'lly induced solar radiation Sigma Gift."
Jazz paused to brace himself, but had to continue quickly before the room erupted again. "When we found him, we couldn' assass'nate him, it went against everythin' we stand fo'. So, we brought him, n' all tha info'mation 'bout him, back wit' us."
Shock permeated the room and Prowl leaned forward. "Is his weapon dangerous to his person?"
"Cording ta Ratchet, tha bitlet's frame is 'ntireleh comprised o' space grade alloys n' would onleh be dangerous if he used his powers fo' long periods o' unin'trupted time."
Thundercall stepped forward before anyone else could comment. "My trine and I would be honored and overjoyed to care for the seekerling."
"What about your current ward?" Optimus asked neutrally. He would like to place the orphan seeker with his own kin, but not at the detriment of another.
The Air Commander raised a staying hand at the sage question. "Our sparkling is a minibot shuttle and even at his young age he already possesses his natural space grade armor. We have also discussed getting him a sibling several times. He is alone in our aerie and that is not good for his emotional development."
The Prime gave his consent to their request and looked back to Jazz in question. "Is there more we should know?"
Jazz plugged in the last files he had acquired from Shockwave's console. "Well, we also discovered tha' Shockers' is tryin' ta rediscovah gestalt technology. He's close, but not there yet. Mirage can elab'rate more on this."
The noble moved forward and took over the narrative from Jazz. "This data was initially collected during the Tarn Infiltration two vorns ago, but was thought to have been entirely destroyed during the bombing that eliminated the Decepticon ground-bridges. Ordinarily, such a set-back would result in Megatron ordering Shockwave to abandon his research for more quickly attainable projects. However, the notion that he might be able to duplicate the Constructicons has become tantalizing to the Decepticon Lord, and he has ordered Shockwave to spare nothing in his pursuit of it, with the exception of direct experimentation on the Constructicons themselves."
Optimus looked over the collected data carefully. He had dabbled in many fields as a youngling before falling in love with history, so he understood at least the basics of the proffered information. "Turn this data over to Science and Engineering."
The Prime turned to the helms of those departments. "Perceptor, Wheeljack, I want this to be a top priority. Having our own gestalts, or at least preventative technology, will be imperative should Shockwave succeed."
He looked around one last time, and seeing no further questions or comments, Optimus dismissed them with a reminder that the contents of the meeting were top secret and not be discussed even with their Seconds.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Bumblebee made his way to the temporary housing his creators had been given. The Prime had pulled him aside at the conclusion of the briefing and informed of his sire's requests. It made the yellow minibot burn. His sire had always disapproved of his choice to join the army, but this attempt to use a horrific crisis to superimpose his will on his creation was unacceptable.
Bumblebee loved his sire and knew that Goldbug loved him back. They had once possessed a close, congenial relationship and Bumblebee had thought there was no one greater in the world than his sire. It had shocked the, then, newly matured minibot that his sire was so emphatically against his creation becoming a soldier of Cybertron. The subsequent quarrels drove an almost insurmountable wedge between and resulted in Bumblebee leaving home assuming he would be summarily disinherited.
That, as it now turned out, was not the case.
The master assassin almost hesitated at his sire's door, but his anger overrode his trepidation. He girded his metaphysical loins and switched his thought patterns over to Lord Bumblebee, Crown Prince of the Minibot Underrealm. The only vestiges of his real life that remained were the smudges on his armor from his recent mission, and he left those to remind his sire that they were all commoners regardless of their self-appointed titles.
The door opened.
Every1'sBeta: okay, so very much to answer here, but I will try. The Optimus/Elita is not going to go as canon, I don't want to give away how, but I can say that much. It will certainly be a plot device in the next story in the saga. The ideas about Blue, Sunstorm, Ironhide, and Ratchet all get a huge thumbs up and are even now being noted on the side for future chapters, hopefully some, if not all, will make in. Shovel Talks! I totally forget about those, I will definitely be adding some, I think even Prime might get in on the action, *wink,wink*. Mirage will get his dues, have no fear.
Thanks also to RainbowGuardian13 and Avaya, your encouraging notes always help me to keep writing.