Darkstriker's eyes scanned over the horizon as he and his team neared their target. He was leaning out of the open door of the cabin, with only his grip on the holding bar fixed above the door keeping him planted to the helicopter that's transporting them. He wasn't with Airachnid on this particular mission. Instead, Silas had paired him with a small group of soldiers and provided them with a fully armed UH-60 Black Hawk for transport.
He didn't understand why Silas decided to do this. He and Airachnid would have been more than enough to handle this mission, but he didn't question the orders he was given.
"Alright, we're gonna go over this one more time." Darkstriker announced. As he turned to face the rest of his team.
11 soldiers in total, excluding him. All of them wore the standard MECH uniform, along with bullet resistant vests and utility belts which were filled with tactical equipment. All of them were armed with assault rifles.
"We're gonna infiltrate this military airfield that serves as a testing ground for experimental military vehicles." Darkstriker explained,"Our mission is to infiltrate the airfield and steal the data regarding a secret experimental hypersonic aircraft. Anything and everything from schematics to data gathered from tests, stuff like that." He then looked up,"You all with me?"
The soldiers nodded.
"Good." Darkstriker turned to look out of the cabin again,"We should be close now."
"Target in sight! ETA 5 minutes!" The pilot suddenly announced.
"That's our cue." Darkstriker commented as he looked out, watching the airfield appear on the horizon.
…
Raf and Miko were chilling at the Autobot base. June was at her shift, so she couldn't accompany them, and the Bots were out, either patrolling the city, or scouting for Energon or Decepticon activities. Even Ratchet and Tailgate weren't at base. Both Miko and Raf were bored, with the Japanese teen retiring to play video games on her phone, while Raf opted to work out some of the homework he had.
All of a sudden, the computer terminal of the Autobot base started beeping as the screen displayed a notification informing about the incoming call from agent Fowler.
Raf immediately sprang up on his feet, connecting his laptop to the Autobot computer terminal and receiving the call.
"Prime!" Agent Fowler called out.
"Uh, Optimus isn't here at the moment, Agent Fowler." Raf answered quickly.
"Wha- are there anybody else at the base?" Fowler asked
"None at the moment."
"Damn it!" Fowler cursed. His eyes widened once he realised what he did, and looked sheepishly at Raf. "Uh, um-"
"It's okay agent Fowler. I've heard worse from Ratchet when he gets frustrated." Raf said.
Fowler looked like he was contemplating his life choices for a moment before straightening his face. "Anyways, if Prime or any of the Bots get back at base, please inform them that there has been a sighting of Jack. I've been informed about Airfield 00 being attacked by a group of unknown assailants."
"By 'Airfield 00', you mean the airfield that the military uses to test out their secretly developed specialised aircrafts?" Raf asked.
Agent Fowler was startled. "Yes, but….. how did you know? That site is a very well kept secret."
"I like to surf around the net sometimes." Raf responded with a sheepish smile.
Agent Fowler sighed. "Ever heard of 'classified information', kid?"
Raf looked even more embarrassed at that.
"Hey Fowler, weren't you just telling about this attack at that airfield? What about it? And you said there was a sighting of Jack too." Miko asked.
"Oh yeah, back to the topic, the assailants are probably MECH. One of them has been recognised as Jack. The Bots might want to seize this chance to get the kid back before the military get their hands on him. So, please inform them about the situation once they get back."
"Alright Agent Fowler, will do."
"Alright kid." Agent Fowler said and cut off the call.
Raf let out a breath. And look back at Miko. He was surprised to see the Japanese teen looking thoughtful.
"Miko?" Raf called out, trying to gain her attention.
"Raf, do you happen to have the coordinates of that airfield Fowler mentioned about?" She asked, looking at the young genius.
"Yeah, why?" Raf asked.
"Hmphh, can you open a ground bridge to that location?"
Raf spun around and faced her when she said that. "Now, why do you want to go there?" he questioned.
"Haven't you heard Fowler? There are not only soldiers from MECH, but also Jack in that airfield." Miko said.
"And? It's a dangerous place to go to, with all the gunfire and stuff. And the Bots aren't even around to keep you safe." Raf countered.
"If Jack is out there, we need to get to him. Maybe we can convince him to come back." Miko argued.
"Miko, Arcee didn't manage to convince him, what makes you think we have a chance." Raf said.
"Because we are going there. We will talk with him. And we are gonna convince him." Miko stubbornly said,"Now, do you want to help me get our friend back or not?"
Raf sighed. "I'm gonna be in so much trouble for this."
…
Explosions could be heard in the distance as gunfire rang through the air. Darkstriker ducked behind his cover as a bullet zapped just a couple inches above where his head was. Though his helmet could have taken the hit, it was still more preferable to not get hit.
The Blackhawk had dropped them in the middle of the airfield, after expending all of its missiles to cause significant damages to the surroundings, and took off, leaving them to work out the mission themselves.
The team had gone guns blazing, since they had very little cover to work with until they managed to get inside the building. After which, retrieving the data was like a walk through the park. The soldiers that came with Darkstriker were merely back up, as he did most of the work, taking down anybody who put up resistance on their way.
But retrieving the data was the easy part. By the time they had done that, the guards at the airfield had gathered themselves and managed to do a counter attack.
"Fall back! Call the heli. We gotta get out of here fast!" Darkstriker yelled orders at his soldiers.
"Roger, Roger!" one of the soldiers yelled back.
"We can't get out this way!" Another soldier yelled.
"Then we will make another way." Darkstriker yelled before turning around.
There were simply too many hostiles in the front to simply fight their way out through the front. Darkstriker materialised his sword in his hand and began cutting out holes in the walls.
"Follow me!" He yelled.
The soldiers quickly got behind Darkstriker as he made a makeshift way out of the building. Soon, Darkstriker tore a hole through the backside of the building as he and his soldiers exited through it.
"Scatter around and meet up at the extraction point." Darkstriker commanded.
The soldiers nodded and scattered up, running off in different directions.
…
Raf had refused to leave Miko alone when they came to Airfield 00. So, he had left a message for the Bots and followed Miko through the ground bridge as they were teleported to the said airfield. But on their arrival, a dred had set in their minds as they saw the destruction around them. There was rubble and fire everywhere with emergency soreness blaring loudly.
"Come on, let's go." Miko said, holding Raf's shoulder,"The faster we find Jack, the sooner we get out of here."
And so, they began wandering around, trying to hopefully find their friend and convince him to come home. They had been wandering around one of the hangers, when they suddenly ran into two MECH soldiers.
"Oof, watch where you're going!" One of the soldiers said after Raf had run into him.
Then they noticed who had run into them. "Civilians." The other soldier said, pointing his rifle at them.
Miko and Raf quickly ran off, but they couldn't out run the soldiers as soon they had them cornered and at gunpoint. Raf and Miko held onto each other in fright. "I knew I was gonna regret it." The former muttered.
"What do we do with them?" "What's there to do? Let's take them out and get out of here." The soldiers talked among themselves before turning back at them.
Their eyes widened as the soldiers were about to pull the trigger. But suddenly someone yelled,"Hey!"
All of them whipped their head towards the direction of the voice and saw a familiar figure clad in black armour.
"What's going on here?" Darkstriker asked, stepping in the scene.
He had noticed these two soldiers chasing after something while on the run, and decided to check out what these two were up to. He never expected to see them having two of his former friends cornered and held at gunpoint.
"We found these two sneaking around." One of the soldiers said, tilting his head towards Miko and Raf.
"They've seen too much, and we cannot let them get out of here." The other one said.
Miko felt a sweat drip down her shin as she held onto Raf, unsure of what might happen to them now. She wanted to believe that nothing would happen to them since Jack was here, and he would protect them again just as he used to do all those months ago. But staring at the towering figure of the masked warrior in front of them, she wasn't as sure.
"Leave them. We ain't got time for two children." Darkstriker suddenly said.
"Negative. These two have seen us, and we can't leave any civilians aware of our existence." One of the soldiers replied.
"I said, leave them. That's an order." Darkstriker said again, his voice rising slightly as he stepped forward.
"We're not necessarily obliged to listen to all of your orders. We were instructed to follow only those which benefit our mission." The other soldier coldly says.
The soldiers turn back towards Miko and Raf and once again raise up their rifles. Miko and Raf were frozen in fear once more as they stared at the gun barrels pointed towards them. All of a sudden one of the soldiers made a gurgling noise. The other soldier's head whipped towards him, and he was horrified to find a sword, Darkstriker's sword, poking out of his teammate's chest as blood gushed out from the wound.
The rifle fell out from the stabbed soldier's arms as Darkstriker turned to look at the remaining of the two soldiers. A wave of coldness ran down the soldier's spine as his eyes met Darkstriker's gaze. The techno-organic warrior pulled out his sword from the body of the now dead soldier, letting his body fall on the ground.
The remaining soldier immediately raised his rifle, but before he could take aim, Darkstriker was in front of him. With one swift swing, he cut off the barrel of the rifle, before following it up with another swing that took the soldier's hand. The soldier screamed out in pain, but one final swing sliced his throat and he fell on his knees before crumbling down on the ground.
Darkstriker raised his sword and wiped the blood off his sword by sliding it against his arm. He glanced at Miko and Raf. His two former friends were still holding onto each other as they stared at him. They looked so frightened. His gaze softened, though it wasn't visible due to his helmet and he turned around to walk away.
Miko suddenly came to her senses as she saw Darkstriker retreating and she and Raf went after him. "Jack!" She called out, reaching for him.
Darkstriker suddenly whipped around, his sword up and levelled with her throat as Raf came to a stop, Miko barely avoiding having her throat poked by the blade. Darkstriker retracted part of his helmet, keeping the face mask on as he glared down on the two.
"Leave." He said,"Both of you ought to go back now. Leave, find some place to hide and wait until the Bots find you. Now, go."
Miko felt panicked and terrified under his glare. Yet she didn't back down. She knew Jack wouldn't hurt them. If he wanted to, he wouldn't have saved them from those soldiers.
"Jack, please. This isn't you. You, you gotta come back with us." Miko said, trying to keep her voice from wavering.
"Jack, we miss you. We all do." Raf added. "Please come back with us. We, we can help fix you."
"There's nothing left to fix, Raf." Darkstriker coldly said. "I am not Jack anymore. At least not the one you knew. Now turn back."
"Jack, please. We want you back, we can help you, please." Miko begged.
Darkstriker scoffed at that. "Help me? Want me back, huh? If they really wanted me back, they wouldn't have left me to rot at the hands of MECH. Besides, you can't help me. Nothing can. There's no way back for me. Now, turn back. This is your last warning."
Miko and Raf were startled by Jack's venomous tone and they took a few steps back. But they refused to give up. Miko was about to say something, when suddenly…
"Miko!" The voice of Bulkhead cut through the air.
They all turned towards the direction the voice came from and saw Bulkhead running towards them, followed by Arcee and Bumblebee. Bulkhead suddenly activated his blaster and shot at Darkstriker, the energy beam hitting the ground just beside him, causing a small explosion that threw Darkstriker back.
Darkstriker quickly scrambled back on his feet, before running off, his helmet reforming back around his head. "Team, evacuate! The Bots are on our tail! I repeat the Bots are on our tail! Evacuate immediately!" He yelled through his comms.
Meanwhile, the Bots had taken in Miko and Raf, their respective guardians questioning them if they were okay, and whatnot.
Arcee saw the retreating figure of Darkstriker. "Jack!" She called out, before giving chase after him.