-Chapter 3: Bad Receptions-
Tranquility, West Coast, USA
Tranquility possessed a high enough population to be classified between a big town or a small city. It had its own mall, its own junkyard, a decent police precinct, a refinery/warehousing/industrial district, and dozens of neighbourhoods ranging from post-war builds to recent cookie-cutter constructions. Blueshift found the atmosphere to be something of a dramatic shift from the lights and sprawl of Las Vegas as he pulled in across the bridge crossing a sizeable waterfront. Tranquility was a portside town that was separated from the sprawling Mission City by a river running between the two. A pair of suspension bridges spanned the waterway to allow for the denizens living in Tranquility to work in the sprawling offices in Mission City.
A full day had passed since he departed Vegas and Blueshift found himself driving under sunny clear blue skies as he arrived in Tranquility. As the Autobot drove inconspicuously into town, his comms crackled to life. The voice on the other end was unmistakeable. "Greetings, young one. This is-"
"Optimus Prime!" Blueshift gasped in response. "I didn't realize our mission would be so important."
"It is of the utmost importance. With the Decepticon presence here on Earth, you are charged with protecting the beings that inhabit this planet. We cannot allow their tyranny to destroy another innocent race." Optimus responded. Blueshift glanced around as he drove past a gas station, noting the various humans walking on sidewalks and driving in vehicles around him.
"We'll do our best, sir. I know I will. But can't you give us more details on what we're really doing here?" He innocently asked.
"In time you will understand all, Blueshift. For now, please focus on your assigned objectives." Optimus stated. "Your task is to rendezvous with our reconnaissance operatives; Blaster and Fastlane. They were the first of us to come to Earth. Remember not to harm any of the humans, young one. As Autobots it is our duty to preserve life. Also, we do not want to attract attention to ourselves. Their technology may be primitive, but in large numbers the humans can be very dangerous, even to us."
"I understand, sir. I've been doing my best to avoid them."
"Good work. Blaster and Fastlane will fill you in on what to do when you meet them. Prime out." The transmission cut out as fresh Autobot identicodes appeared on Blueshift's radar, and the blue of his roadster alt mode glistened brightly in the sun as he turned down a different road en route to the meet-up…
Elsewhere in Tranquility…
The police precinct was always bustling with activity of some sort. Cop cars came and went, people entered the station doors and left by them. Tailwhip cared little for the human's activities and sought out only one reason to be here. A single cop car remained parked in one of the lots, the spots around it emptied of officers out on patrol in their own vehicles. But Tailwhip's scanners knew better… it was no ordinary police interceptor, but a robot in disguise.
"Nice of you to show up, rookie." Barricade remarked, not even moving from his cover.
"I got here as fast as I could." Tailwhip retorted as his news chopper hovered in a slow circle around the police station.
"Yeah that's real interesting." Barricade said, sounding disinterested. "Listen, do me a favour and go blow up those vehicles on the other side of the street." Tailwhip shifted focus, noticing a line of three parked cars and vans in blue, green, and red. It seemed like such a trivial thing to do but Tailwhip was currently bound to assist Barricade. Whatever he said was to be taken as an order.
Transforming in midair, Tailwhip dropped down and crushed the first vehicle underfoot. Reaching out he flipped another over on its roof before planting the other to a smoking wreck with his electron-laser. The response was immediate. Civialsn screamed in terror and ran away for cover. The local authorities started pouring out of the police station. Officers drew their sidearms and opened fire as Tailwhip turned around, others pulled out heavier weapons from their vehicles and opened fire to deafen the once-still air. Tailwhip was perplexed. The small-arms fire wasn't damaging him but he had not been expecting the sudden assault.
"What's going on?" He questioned aloud.
"By destroying those vehicles, the humans now perceive you as a danger and are retaliating." Barricade explained over their comms. "They'll fight to protect their property, so keep that in mind before you start blowing stuff up. Despite their primitive status they can complicate things in a hurry." Loosing a sigh of resignation, Tailwhip realized he'd been set up.
"Great… Thanks for the warning…" He grumbled. Raising his cannon arm, Tailwhip's electron-laser disintegrated several of the humans and several damaged several of the cop cars on scene before he transformed and took flight, soon well out of the range of their weapons.
"Dispatch we have a… uh… what's the code for a giant robot attack?"
"Dispatch to all units, break off engagement. Armed forces are en route to handle the problem." Barricade announced, his vocalizer disguising himself to sound like one of the station duty officers.
"Copy, dispatch. Breaking off pursuit."
Barricade peeled out of the parking lot and started tailing Tailwhip from afar, tracking him to Tranquility's riverside industrial centre. The largely abandoned refinery made for perfect cover as the younger of the two Decepticons transformed and dropped to the ground, his entire chassis shuddering with controlled rage.
"Real funny, Barricade." Tailwhip growled irritably as he straightened up. His chassis was still sporting a few dents from where bullets had impacted. Barricade chuckled as he transformed, his head appeared out of the hood as the whole from of the police car formed his chest. Doors slid up on his shoulders to conceal the forward wheels perched atop them while the rear spoiler split in two and folded around his knees.
"Lighten up, rookie. I was just trying to teach you a lesson." The interrogator teased, the sun catching on his darkly-coloured faceplate.
"Just tell me if you've found the source of the Decepticon signal." Tailwhip demanded, crossing his arms.
"Not yet. But despite what Starscream tells you, we aren't tracking down just any Decepticon, punk." Barricade retorted. "The signal came from Megatron himself."
Tailwhip blinked. He knew about Megatron. Starscream had seen fit to explain their history in its entirely and included his predecessor. That said, he had not done so in favourable ways. "Megatron? All this for him?" He repeated in disbelief. "He's a joke. He abandoned us ages ago." Tailwhip scoffed, thinking nothing of it.
All of a sudden, before he could react, a blow to his midsection from Barricade had Tailwhip doubled over before a right hook sent energon spewing from his mouth. The younger 'Con looked up in shock. Barricade's optics had narrowed into thin lines.
"Watch your vocalizer!" Barricade hissed venomously. "Without Megatron, you'd just be another Autobot, blindly following Optimus Prime and the rest of his weaklings. Now get lost and think about that!" He snapped.
Dropping to the ground and transforming, the interrogator tore off with a squeal of his tires as Tailwhip struggled to pick himself back up. "What-? Hey, wait-!" He called out in vain. But Barricade had already left and he wasn't looking back.
The blue Saturn Sky drove to Tranquility's warehousing district and pulled between the rows of identical buildings, prowling slowly down the road as if to make sure he was all alone. Pausing behind one of them, Blueshift transformed and stood at full height, his head crest just barely below the apex of the sloped warehouse roof.
Mere moments after his conversion, a red Scion XB with gold trim and a red Ford Mustang with silver trim slowly crept out from around the corner of the building. Pausing before Blueshift, they quickly transformed into robot modes. "Blueshift, right? Name's Fastlane and this is Blaster." The former Mustang greeted. Blueshift cocked his head as he studied the sizeable scars cutting through Fastlane's helm. One of his optics was a paler shade of blue, evidently damaged by the grotesque marks that cut though his head.
"Hey, what's with the battle scars?"
"Oh, these? Punishment from Megatron back at Tyger Pax." Fastlane replied nonchalantly, at peace with his appearance.
"Tyger Pax? That's when Megatron vanished into space." Blueshift realized.
"Sure is, but now ain't the time for a history lesson." Blaster cut in, the wheels positioned behind his head rotating idly as he strode forward. "We've got to get a move on, there's Decepticons here too and they outnumber us five-to-one."
"Yeah, we encountered one of them after we made landfall. Killed my squadmate Wideload and almost got me too. Scared the living spark out of me!" Said Blueshift.
"Yeah, should've mentioned that. When the 'Cons deployed here they dropped off their entire Beta Company to investigate the transmission signal. They have drones everywhere." Fastlane explained as he crossed his arms.
"An entire army? Here? What could they possibly want from this dump?" Blueshift asked, having never gotten a straight answer from Ironhide when he'd asked the old veteran.
"You'll find out soon enough, kiddo… but you'll wish you hadn't." Blaster answered rather cryptically. But the sinister overtones behind his words was not enough to dissuade Blueshift's curiosity, although they did worry him.
"Moving on from that, we need your help with something." Fastlane stated, shifting the topic of discussion. Blaster nodded.
"Right." The front grille of his vehicle mode suddenly opened up to deploy a box-like object that quickly transformed into a small black Autobot Minicon. "This here's Rewind, one of the best snoops this side of Cybertron. We were searching around the human's main computing network, which they call the 'internet', for a lead on the origin of this Decepticon signal."
"I found an image of a pair of prosthetic human lenses." Rewind stated, triggering a holoprojector within his optics to reveal a sizeable render of the glasses he had discovered days earlier.
"Doesn't sound all that important." Blueshift said dismissively.
"Oh but they are. They have a Decepticon code imprinted on them." Rewind revealed before he powered down the hologram. "The image was uploaded from a human computer somewhere here in Tranquility. Unfortunately I was cut off before I could pinpoint the location. We've tried multiple times since but no luck getting back in." The Minicon revealed.
"We're hoping you might have better luck tracking them down. Our ether-frequencies might've been recorded so whoever blocked us out will know to try again. You, however, are brand new to this and might be able to pull it off." Fastlane stated. All Blueshift could do was shrug. He was here to help them with whatever their problems were to the best of his abilities.
"Well, I'm no technicist, but I'll try."
"Good. I'll upload the coordinates of an internet tower that should give you a way in." Rewind promised, picking away at a small-sized console on his forearm.
"Fastlane an' I will stay low and slow, keep an optic open for 'Cons skulkin' about. Find out whatcha can and then report back." Blaster added. The trio transformed back into their vehicle modes (Rewind climbing into the passenger seat of Blaster) before they drove off in separate directions.
Tracking the location coordinates Rewind had uploaded to his radar, Blueshift drove to a business park where the first of the internet towers such perched above a blocky unit of storefronts. He drove around to the back and transformed, quickly morphing part of his hand into a datajack. It had often worked to access control panels and gate keys back on Cybertron and could, in theory, be reconfigured to interface with Earthen electronics. Wires snaked out to wrap around bundles of fibre optic cables allowing Blueshift to interact without damaging the system. "Rewind, I've locked into the internet access." A flood of data filled his mind as he attempted to track down the IP data from the image Rewind had uncovered. Numbers filled his mind in addition to all manner of words, phrases, and images as he began surfing through the human internet…
But only five minutes into his search, everything ground to a halt as his connection was terminated.
"Huh? What happened?! My connection was cut!" Blueshift exclaimed.
"Hmm, same thing that happened to us and I don't think it was an accident." Rewind surmised on the other end of his comms. "Better get out of there, I'm noticing the local authorities closing on your position. I'll upload the location of another internet tower. Go try again." Blueshift hurried to unplug and transformed back into alt mode, peeling out and making a beeline to leave the business park.
"If a hard connection won't cut it, what else can I try?" He asked Rewind.
"Maybe if you reconfigure your optical scanners to attune to the same electrical frequency? Blaster tried that last time." The Minicon suggested.
"Worth a try. I guess." Blueshift mumbled.
The second internet tower was revealed to be amounted atop an office complex roughly four stories high. Blueshift pulled into an alleyway across the street and converted to robot mode. "Okay, I've adjusted the frequency of my optical scanners. In theory I should just scan the tower to achieve an uplink, right?"
"Correct. Keep the scan going for as long as possible. You don't have a built-in transponder to maintain a remote uplink like Blaster can." Rewind affirmed. "Let me know what happens." Blueshift set to work, fixing his gaze on the internet tower and letting the beams from his optics interact with the relays bouncing signals around. He began to connect to the internet again, another flood of data filling his central processor as he attempted to find a correlating IP address that matched the background numbers encoded within Rewind's image.
"So far so good…" Cycling through correlating numbers, Blueshift's excitement began to mount when he reached the halfway mark. All of a sudden, everything was locked out from an external source and his connection was fouled up. "Argh! It happened again! There is no way the humans could detect my scan." Blueshift growled in frustration.
"I'm starting to think there's more to this situation than meets the optic." Rewind surmised. "Here, another tower location. Please, try it one more time."
"Fine. I'll try making some adjustments to the frequency." Blueshift said, leaping ahead and transforming into alt mode in order to get a speedy start. Weaving his way across the roads, carefully watching out for any sign of the local authorities that might try to pursue him, Blueshift barreled towards the location pinging on the edge of his radar. The third and final internet tower was perched atop an electrical substation that was a part of the town's power grid.
With very little room to maintain cover, Blueshift had to devise a plan to keep himself out of human sight. Converting to robot mode, he hurriedly climbed up to the roof of the substation, crouching low while keeping the tower in view. Triggering his optic scanners, he managed to intertwine his feed with the internet's electrical signal again. He stayed silent, focused on getting this over and done with as soon as possible. He quickly filed down the first few IP address numbers again, closing the gap as his memory banks catalogued multiple web addresses. The numbers continued to tick past. The sun was setting behind him, bright orange light reflecting off the metallic blue of his chassis. He needed to hurry…
At last, the final numbers came together and a correlating IP address matched the original sender ID of Rewind's image. "Bingo!" The Autobot exclaimed in delight as his processor logged the IP address. "Blueshift to Rewind. Good news! I've pinpointed the origin of the image."
"Thank Primus!" Rewind replied, breathing a sigh of relief.
"Groovy!" Blaster chimed in. Blueshift hopped off the rooftop and transformed, burning rubber out of the perimeter in order to avoid getting spotted.
"So what's so important about this Decepticon code?" He asked once he was a safe distance from the substation.
"Not so much the code but from whom it came… it has all the high-end encoded inputs from someone like Megatron." Fastlane explained. Had he not been driving, Blueshift would've frozen in place.
"Megatron! He's here?" He asked, sounding frightening.
"All we know is a high-ranking Decepticon distress call was sent from this solar system about a hundred Earth-years ago. The Decepticons came here to learn more and Optimus Prime sent us two to check things out." Fastlane told him.
"But why would a high-ranking Decepticon be all the way out here? And isn't Megatron supposed to be lost in space?" Blueshift asked in quick succession.
"To answer the first question, no idea." Fastlane said.
"And to answer the second, Megatron wasn't lost, kiddo. He was following the Allspark." Blaster explained. The very term conjured up images of a massive cube from which power flowed abundantly. Said to be a creation of the legendary Primus himself, the Allspark was responsible for the genesis of Cybertronian life. It's power had no equal in the cosmos.
"The Allspark?! Do you… think it's here on Earth?"
"Right now, we don't know. But the sooner we can get to the bottom of this prosthetic lenses mystery, the sooner we'll be able to learn more." Rewind chipped in.
"If it is on Earth, and if this is indeed Megatron, we can't let him get his servos on it. That's why I was the one who launched it off Cybertron in the first place… and I'm not about to let that choice be undone." Fastlane stated determinedly. "You did good, Blueshift. I'll proceed to the coordinates retrieved from the internet and investigate the area. I just need to track down the prosthetic lenses and scan the code for myself, then we'll have all the data we need."
Meanwhile…
Tailwhip hadn't heard a word from Barricade ever since their altercation and the young Decepticon was starting to wonder. He'd been laying low all day and making adjustments to make sure the local authorities no longer recognized him (which meant scanning the traffic helicopter at a local news station and staying put for hours on end). As the sun began to set and the day drew to a close, a single set of coordinates appeared on his radar. With only an inkling as to who sent them, Tailwhip took flight and made for the edge of town.
By the edge of a treeline reaching up a rise in the terrain, Barricade's police interceptor alt mode sat idly. He was waiting. Tailwhip descended and transformed, approaching on foot as Barricade transformed to meet him. "Got a job for you, rookie. You up for it, or are you still raw about me hitting you?" He questioned.
"Decepticons do not fear pain." Tailwhip stated defiantly. "What do you want?" If Barricade had a mouth he'd be smiling.
"That's what I like to hear." He mused. "We've been tracking a pair of Autobots to this town, and I can confirm they have info we need. But like a typical pair of Autobytes they're hiding. We need to find them."
"Whose 'we'?" Tailwhip questioned.
"Before you came along, it was Soundwave and I casing the area. Soundwave managed to listen in on one of their conversations and heard something about a Decepticon code having been imprinted on some human's possession." Barricade explained.
"So, what? A little more wanton destruction to draw them out of hiding?" Tailwhip wondered, thinking about the last time he'd been asked to flush out some Autobots.
"You've got options, rookie. Sure, you can be a tough guy and start shooting, or you can maintain cover by simply scanning the area for Autobots. That'll keep the humans off your back and help get the job done quicker." Barricade answered. "Once you find the Autobots, alert Soundwave to their location and he'll be able to trace their communications so we can learn what they know." Tailwhip turned back to look at Tranquility, lights appearing across buildings as the residents began to adjust for the loss of daylight.
"Well, my alt mode has some adequate observation equipment. If I can run my energon radiation detector through it, I should be able to pinpoint the Autobots from above." He theorized.
"Well now. Sounds like you've still got a brain module in that helm." Barricade snickered. "Go ahead, rookie." Tailwhip turned and took flight, his rotors thundering as he gained elevation. In the guise of a traffic chopper he blended in with those observing the late night drive home. But in his case, using his alt mode's built-in camera equipment was proving handy in a very different way. There were dozens of vehicles on the roads of Tranquility. But when used in conjunction with Tailwhip's energon radiation sensor, the cameras could pick out an Autobot in a traffic jam.
"Any sign of them, rookie?" Barricade asked over comms.
"Nothing yet. I'll keep searching. So far the radiation sensor integration is working well enough." Tailwhip responded. Pivoting in the air, Tailwhip maneuvered closer to a different part of town, sweeping his cameras across the roadways in search of energon radiation. A small reading caught his attention and he moved to investigate, zooming his camera lens in on the residential roads on the edge of Tranquility. The reading grew stronger and Tailwhip grew certain he'd found one of his foes. "Barricade, I've located one of the Autobots moving through the northern housing estates." He announced.
"Nice work flushing them out." The interrogator complimented, a rare thing to hear from Barricade. "Keep your distance but don't lose them. I'll let Soundwave know."
"How's he supposed to monitor what the Autobots are saying?"
"Soundwave's a master at communications control. These primitives don't have a satellite he can't hack in order to boost his own abilities." Barricade said plainly. "Veteran Decepticons like us are good at that kinda thing. We use whatever we can find for our own ends." Had he been in robot mode, Tailwhip would've just shrugged at the answer.
"Transmitting coordinates now." He announced and promptly converted the approximated location into a radar ping that his fellow Decepticons would receive.
"Communications interception in progress. Scanning." A new, monotone voice suddenly stated that gave Tailwhip a case of the creeps. His chassis shuddered at the very tone of Soundwave's synthetic modulator and Tailwhip felt a distinct sense of unease. It wasn't a lifelike voice. More like the vocabulations of a very stoic mechanoid with rigid programming.
"Scan complete. Communications data suggests three Autobots working together; Blaster, Fastlane, and Blueshift. They are investigating a lead about Neo-Decepticon cyberglyphs having been implanted on a pair of prosthetic human lenses." Soundwave revealed.
"Interesting." Barricade hummed. "Rookie, report back to me and we'll go through this together."
Tailwhip did so, switching off his running lights and observation cameras as he flew back to Barricade's position, transforming and alighting before the same hilly treeline. "What would cyberglyphs be doing on a pair of human lenses?" He wondered.
"My guess is they were planted there by optical scanners." Barricade described. "But only if there was no other option. These lenses had to be the only thing around that could be encoded with cyberglyphs."
"Correlation with historical facts could determine location and reduce the number of variables. Scanning datastream." Soundwave announced, breaking the silence. Barricade and Tailwhip waited for his word, which, surprisingly, didn't take long. "Scan complete. Human archival information indicates a human ship captain claimed to have witnessed a 'giant metal man' frozen in ice. His reported location was the northern hemisphere of the planet. These prosthetic lenses belonged to the ship captain."
"Looks like the Autobytes want to race us to Megatron. If there's coordinates written in cyberglyphs, they'll have an exact location long before we do." Barricade hurriedly determined.
"You're sure it's Megatron who sent that transmission?" Tailwhip asked, a measure of unconvinced suspicion in his voice.
"It was a high-end encoded frequency, the kind only a commanding officer could send. Soundwave analyzed it and knows it came from Megatron. There's no mistaking it." Barricade stated, apparently too caught in the goings-on to offer a derisive retort. "Soundwave, any idea what the Autobots' next move is?"
"The one called Fastlane is attempting to locate the prosthetic lenses." Soundwave's monotone voice promptly explained. Barricade was quick to think and quick to act.
"Alright, rookie, here's the plan: Soundwave and I will tail Fastlane, you stay put. I'll radio if we need you." He stated and then transformed and drove off without waiting for another word from the younger 'Con.
Tailwhip stood rooted in place. He looked to Tranquility in the distance and followed Barricade's exhaust trail as he drove off. Thankful for the shadows cast by the trees the up-and-coming leader-in-waiting decided he'd had enough of being treated like scrap parts. It was time he did something about this. Barricade's icy nature was one thing but his absolute certainty about Megatron's presence was another.
Tailwhip had never known the founder of the Decepticon cause. Like many 'Bots and 'Cons, he was one of the last batch of sparklings created by the Allspark before it was ejected into space. He was late to the war effort but his natural talent shone in Starscream's optics which quickly elevated his position. Given how Starscream never liked to talk much about Megatron, always citing that the past was the past and no one ever got anywhere looking behind, the few instances he had discussed his predecessor left Tailwhip with the distinct impression Starscream didn't like Megatron much. How would he respond to news like this I wonder…? Tailwhip thought to himself.
He activated his long range comms channel and reached out to his master. "Lord Starscream. I've rendezvoused with Barricade, but he isn't being very forthcoming."
Starscream promptly responded. "I should have foreseen this. I apologize. Barricade is suspicious of everyone. You will need to find a way to earn his trust." He stated simply, giving Tailwhip the first sense of someone in his corner since his arrival to Earth. "Did you find out anything?" His master queried.
"The Autobots seemed interested in a human ship captain who may have seen M-… the Decepticon who sent the signal we received." Tailwhip reported, just barely catching himself before he tripped up and used Megatron's name.
"How interesting." Starscream hummed. "Did you happen to find out where this supposed captain saw this supposed Decepticon?" He inquired, his voice somewhere between suspicion and curiosity.
"According to the data we scanned, the captain was in the northern polar region of the planet. The natives refer to it as the arctic." Tailwhip described. "Do you want us to go there to investigate?"
"That won't be necessary." Starscream said calmly. "I wouldn't want any of you wasting your energon chasing after ghosts. Keep me posted on any new developments. Starscream out." The transmission came to an end and Tailwhip was left to his thoughts. Despite Starscream's apparently relaxed demeanour, there was something about his choice of words that gave the young 'Con pause. His ready dismissal of the evidence suggested Starscream either didn't want the matter investigate or cared so little as to wave it off as being nothing and beneath his notice. Either way it was enough to convince Tailwhip that maybe there was something to Barricade's claims… something that Starscream might be purposefully avoiding.
"Ghosts, eh, Starscream?" Tailwhip murmured to himself. "We'll see about that…"