-Chapter 5: The Diversions-
Tranquility, West Coast, USA - Some time earlier…
As the Autobots transferred their data retrieved from the glasses to Optimus Prime, Decepticon Tailwhip hovered around Tranquility in his vehicle form, waiting for word from his fellow 'Cons. As night turned to day, he grew impatient. "Barricade, have you managed to track down the Autobots yet?" He asked into his comms.
"Negatory." Barricade responded after a moment. "The local human authorities have been making things difficult. A vehicle matching Fastlane's description is potentially wanted for 'criminal activity' and the humans have been trying to track it down and are getting in my way." The interrogator described. His predicament presented an opportunity to Tailwhip as the suggestion of his master surfaced in his brain module.
"Barricade is suspicious of everyone. You will need to find a way to earn his trust."
"Let me take care of that for you. I'll get their attention." Tailwhip offered.
"That would make things easier. And I do like things easy…" Barricade mused thoughtfully. After some consideration, he relented, "go ahead, rookie."
The next morning…
All was calm and business as usual around the Tranquility Police Station. Vehicles filled the local parking lot and officers milled about the grounds. Their peaceful day was abruptly shattered when the giant mechanoid form of Tailwhip came crashing down from the sky, cop cars annihilated underfoot as shards of metal and glass rained down around him.
People started shouting and screaming as Tailwhip fired his electron laser into the various police vehicles around him, igniting their engine blocks and prompting detonations across the lot as a giant fireball began to consume the grounds. The police scrambled to react as Tailwhip started dumping rockets from his shoulder launchers into the various buildings in the precinct. Brick and mortar crumbled as fire and flame rushed from detonations, turning the area into a miniature warzone.
The minute the police managed to bring their weapons to bear, Tailwhip was off like a shot, converting back into helicopter form and taking to the skies, leaving the precinct behind him. A thick column of smoke rose into the sky and the glow from the various fires could be seen for miles around. Tailwhip knew he'd have to make some alterations to his appearance. The only other NEWS chopper that could afford him fresh cover had already been taken on as his current appearance. It would be problematic for him to assume a similar appearance without raising suspicion. All these new problems for him to deal with, all to earn Barricade's trust… I sure hope that was worth it. He thought to himself.
As he neared the waterfront, his comms crackled to life. "Thanks, rookie. That did the trick. Police scanners everywhere are hunting for you, now I can deal with the Autobots without interference." A pleased Barricade informed him. "So why do me the favour?" He then wondered. "I've been riding you ever since you got here."
"And I've been trying to earn your respect ever since I got here. Or are you too stubborn to even see that?" Tailwhip retorted. It didn't take Barricade long to see clear through his answer.
"Ahhhh… Starscream put you up to it, didn't he?"
Could Tailwhip physically react, he would've performed a double-take. Instead he merely hardened his voice and stated coldly, "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Yeah you do, but that's okay." Barricade mused dismissively. "Now I'm gonna go put the brakes on Fastlane. You stay low and out of sight until I make contact again. Barricade out."
Tailing the Autobots had proven their favourite hours of operations were after dark to ensure there was minimal human activity going on that could get them noticed. Barricade waited until the sun began to set before he made his move. With the local police still preoccupied after Tailwhip's unsubtle rampage, the 'Con was free to move about the town as he pleased.
Moving at a slow crawl in his Saleen S281 police interceptor form, Barricade pinged his radiation scanners for the Autobots he sought. Of the two he now had on record, only one was camped out in the warehousing district. That was fine for him. All he needed was to coax the information out of one of them. And Barricade had not earned the position of interrogator through sheer luck or happenstance.
This Decepticon was very good at his job.
Rolling out into the open, he detected a red Ford Mustang sitting idly between two storage buildings. Barricade wasted no time converting to robot mode. "Let's not make this complicated. Surrender and I promise to take down alive." He stated coldly, hands balling into fists. A split second later, headlights flicked on and the Mustang burned rubber peeling out. I love it when they run. The Decepticon thought to himself. Falling behind, Barricade swiftly transformed back into his police cruiser persona and gave chase. "Soundwave, I'm in pursuit of the Autobot Fastlane."
"Acknowledged."
Shattering through a chain link fence, not-police-car pursued not-Mustang through a manufacturing district that had seen far better days the previous century. The same neglect was evident in the vestiges of tracks and train yard that had once served the skeletal steel remains of now-silent industries. Anyone looking on would have seen an ordinary police vehicle chasing a vibrant muscle car.
At least the police car was relatively ordinary until the side panels on the cruiser rose up like wings to reveal launching pods beneath each cradling metallic arc.
Explosions boiled up on either side of the Mustang as it swerved and dodged, Barricade's barrage of micro missiles just narrowly missing their mark each time as disused buildings crumbled into plumes of flame with every failed impact. His targeting computers were finely-tuned, but Fastlane was the more nimble driver. The Autobot knew who he was up against and was attempting to respond accordingly. "Blaster! I've got a 'Con on my tailpipe! I could use some assistance!" He exclaimed into his comms.
"Tracking your telemetry data now. Keep it cool, Fastlane, I'm on the way!"
"I'm gonna try to lead him to the waterfront refinery. Meet me there." Fastlane stated, cutting his comms as another missile streaked past him and detonated amid a pile of steel tie-rods, sending material flying everywhere and raining down with enough force to crush a human. The Autobot veered right and smashed through a scrap iron gate, turning onto a side road. Optimus Prime's orders resonated in his mind. Barricade was hellbent on taking him down, no matter who or what got in his way. Not wanting to involve any humans (to avoid getting them hurt and to avoid complicating things) Fastlane knew of a small handful of human-free locations in Tranquility where he could take this unfolding fight.
Chasing down the dusty side road, the view opened up to reveal the river running between Tranquility and Mission City. Down below sat the old refinery, half of it under demolition. Bursting onto the grounds with a sudden surge in speed, Fastlane barreled to towards the disused buildings with the Saleen hot on his tail. At the last possible minute the Mustang spun a perfect 180, turning to face the oncoming police cruiser.
Tires squealed as the Mustang lurched forward. Barricade did not slow a tick, continuing to launch small and very deadly missiles as it came onward. One sped past the evading Mustang's left wheel as Fastlane avoided the oncoming projectile with preternatural nimbleness.
At the last instant, both vehicles swerved, missing each other by millimeters. It was difficult to say which was louder: the squeal of sliding tires or the ensuing explosions as Barricade's missile detonated upon the nearest solid surface.
Emitting muted grinding and squealing noises as he powerslid to a halt, the Mustang transformed and Fastlane rose up in his bipedal form. The Autobot charged at the simultaneously transforming Barricade. As the robots slammed into each other, Barricade's clawed hand lashed out and struck Fastlane across his unguarded face, sparks erupting from the battle scars around his optic. The Autobot stumbled back as Barricade rushed in to capitalize. But as he whipped around to land a tornado kick, Fastlane recovered and caught his leg, turning around and hurling Barricade into a storage silo.
Autobot and Decepticon started circling, Fastlane automorphing his right hand into a boomer cannon as Barriace automorphed his barrage cannon into readiness. "You lured me here to protect the humans, didn't you? You actually care about them?" Barricade wondered with a sneer. "Humans are savage beings. Not the sort worth risking your axel for."
"Savage? Oh that's… that's real smart coming from a Decepticon…" Fastlane said slowly, trying to ignore the sparks shooting from his damaged helm. Barricade noted the discomfort he was in as well as the subtle chromatic shift in the color of Fastlane's optic on that side.
"What's the matter? Blind on one side?" He wondered teasingly. "Oh, yeah, that's your bad optic." He said smugly, lording his knowledge of Fastlane's weakness over the Autobot. "You're lucky Megatron only scarred your chassis. When I'm done with you," his threat lingered as Barricade retracted his right hand and an emitter brandished a spiked flail with a flash of energon light, "there won't be enough spare parts left, Autobyte!"
Fastlane snapped up his arm and fired a low level sonic boom from his cannon. Barricade rolled to avoid and the concussive wave crushed a metal shed behind him. Raising his weapon a blast of projectiles erupted from the Decepticon's cannon, sparks riddling Fastlane's overshields as a hail of metal clattered against his chassis. Lunging ahead, Barricade whipped around and hammered Fastlane with his mace. The Autobot took the brunt of Barricade's charge, which sent the red robot tumbling backward. Rolling onto its feet, Fastlane charged straight at the transformed cruiser, his boomer cannon firing a wall of concussive force that knocked one of his legs out from underneath him. As Barricade was knocked askew, Fastlane drove his knee into his faceplate as he automorphed his free hand into another boomer cannon. Taking aim at the airborne 'Con, Fastlane blasted him into a pile of construction equipment.
Moments later, the Decepticon interrogator blasted out of the debris. Barricade had transformed back into a police cruiser and armed his missile launchers. Employing the added velocity of his adopted terrestrial form, he burned rubber and charged. Fastlane waited, waited—and then stepped aside. At the same time he turned and increased the power of his boomer cannon to its maximum setting. He turned and fired on a nearby crane, the concussive blow shattering the steel supports and collapsing the structure. Hanging from the crane's arm was a solid steel wrecking ball. The crane missed the oncoming Barricade, but the wrecking sphere did not. It smashed square into the roof of the charging cruiser, stopping the vehicle as cold as if it had run head-on into a solid wall. Flashing police lights and their protective plastic splintered and went flying in all directions.
Heaving a sigh of relief from his intakes, Fastlane was about to relax when the squeal of rubber from elsewhere in the refinery jerked his head around. A pearl-white Mercedes GLK 350 SUV tore onto the scene, panels and body moving in mechanical fashion as it began to transform. The white of the vehicle found its place on Soundwave's arms and legs, while the headlights and grille fused to his abdomen and the windshield covered the whole of his chest region. His helm, an entirely robotic appearance encapsulated by a visor and faceplate, emerged last with a flash of red as the Decepticon comms officer rushed towards Fastlane. His left hand automorphed into a sonic disruptor cannon to counter Fastlane's sonic boom and Soundwave sustained his ultrasonic barrage as he pummeled the Autobot with high-frequency acoustics to disorient his logic centres. A swift punch put Fastlane flat on his back. He tried to get up only to find the glowing blue barrel of Soundwave's weapon aimed at his face. "Soundwave superior. Autobots inferior." The 'Con droned.
"You can talk the talk, Sound-byte," a new voice announced. Soundwave looked up to see a red and gold-trimmed Scion xB arrive on the scene and promptly transform into Blaster's robot mode, "but I bet you can't walk the walk."
Soundwave snapped up his arm to focus on his rival as Blaster activated his shoulder-mounted rocket launcher. A single projectile was loosed only to be promptly destroyed when it hit a wall of solid sound. "Your cries and screams will be music to my audials." Soundwave stated.
"You won't be so cool after I finish with you, Decepticon punk!" Blaster remarked, his left hand automorphing into a gyro blaster.
"All talk. No shock." Soundwave retorted, the plating around his right arm converting to engage his sonic pulse blaster. A charged blast flew towards his rival as Blaster spun round to dodge, firing an orange bolt from his gyro cannon that missed Soundwave by millimeters. The two started running in the same direction, strafing one another between abandoned buildings as their angled courses slowly drew closer and closer.
Soon they were at point blank range and both forwent ranged weaponry. Their heated rivalry, spanning from Cybertron to now, drove them to settle things mech to mech. Hands locked in a clash, the two struggle in to physically overwhelm the other. But as they did, tendrils of hardened energy snaked out from Soundwave's arms, finding purchase on Blaster's own arms as Soundwave started a neural-net hack. Energy converted to data and back again, soundwave weaving a portion of his own consciousness into Blaster's brain module as he sifted through petabytes of data. Acutely aware of his situation, Blaster tried to turn it in his favour. "Nice… neural bridge… Let me… cross over!" He grunted, employing his own calculated data correspondence techniques to hack Soundwave's memory banks in return.
Had the handover of information taken place at humanoid speed, dozens of names, geographic locations, and would have been among the series of alphanumeric characters that would have appeared across their central processors. As it stood, it happened nearly instantaneously.
Soundwave and Blaster ran a search/scan of their own, digging through each other's recorded files and downloaded data. Almost instantly, the information gathered by Autobot and Decepticon was shared back and forth; several newspaper articles from the Autobots, tactical data from the Decepticons, all of zeroing in on their goals. The unfortunate captain's face was among the graphics that made a split-second appearance between their minds. So were several photographs of symbols that were alien to anything on Earth—but not to Blaster and Soundwave.
The hacking continued, going deeper, seeking every match, every bond, every link. Ignoring the accompanying historical data from eons past, both machines focused their attention on a pair of battered, badly scored spectacles. The extraordinarily primitive dual-lens artificial sight-correcting device interested them not in the least. But the symbologic code that had been burned microscopically into the two lenses interested them very much indeed.
Conveniently, the simple coded page provided the physical locality at which the owner of the page and the spectacles resided. It was all too easy. Soundwave made a note of everything related to it, downloading terabytes of information in the blink of an eye. Blaster tried to resist, retorting by absconding with as many copies of Soundwave's internal storage drives as he could.
Then, all at once, the clash broke. Autobot and Decepticon stumbled back in a daze, their brain modules temporarily overloaded with an influx of new data. Blaster managed to recalibrate his sensors first and fired his gyro cannon. A direct hit scrambled Soundwave's balance sensors and he tumbled to the ground in a heap. Forcing a hard reset of his gyroscopic stabilizers, Soundwave reconfigured his internal generators and produced a piercing shriek of white noise that overloaded Blaster's audials before he could react. With the Autobots stunned, Soundwave activated his sonic disruptor and used a concentrated blast of sound energy to roll the wrecking ball off of Barricade. "Barricade. Retreat." Soundwave droned as he transformed and drove off with a squeal of his tires. Although his roof was crushed, Barricade managed to drive off after him, looking the more pathetic of the two in his damaged state.
"Ugh, what was that?" Fastlane wondered with a groan as he picked himself up.
"Ultrasonics. One of ol' Soundwave's party tricks." Blaster answered as he offered his comrade a hand and helped him up.
"Soundwave's here too?" Fastlane passively queried. "The 'Cons really sent the whole upper echelons… What was that all about?"
"I mean, they're Decepticons. Do you really need to ask?" Blaster replied with a smirk. "But if I had to guess, I'd say they're desperate. Which means nothing good."
"And what about that thing between you and Soundwave?" Fastlane pried, referring to their stalemate clash from not a minute ago.
"That… was the 'nothing good' part." Said Blaster gravely.
Limping to an isolated road on the edge of Tranquility, still bordering the river, Barricade transformed. The process was a lot harsher with his damaged chassis. Significant dents and scrapes marked his otherwise pristine black carapace and now his roof had been caved in to a point where he was almost hunchbacked as the components failed to form his rear assembly appropriately.
"You have sustained moderate damage." Soundwave noted as he too transformed.
"Superficial stuff." Barricade grunted. "I'll walk it off. Enough energon and my self-repair routines will fix it." Soundwave nodded in acceptance.
"During my clash with Blaster, we managed to hack each other's mainframes. He retrieved the data in my possession while I copied his." Barricade's optics narrowed with concern.
"What're the consequences of such a thing?" He asked.
"Minimal for us. The Autobots have more information than we do." Soundwave stated simply.
"Good." Barricade hummed, pleased something had gone right. He qeued up his comms, "Tailwhip, rendezvous at the waterfront. We've got some data the Autobots yielded to go over."
The 'Cons waited for their third to arrive before Soundwave used the holoprojector mounted within his optical visor to generate a complete display of all the information he had stolen from Blaster's databanks. There was a lot to go over, but once Soundwave sifted through it all to discern relevant from irrelevant, the revelations came quickly and consistently.
"Hmm, looks like the Autobots found the source of the signal." Barricade noted. "They've got a team in the arctic right now."
"That team reported Megatron was imprisoned there but was moved to an unknown location." Soundwave droned.
"Yeah, something to do with some human military organization called 'Sector Seven'." Barricade noted, studying the currently-unfamiliar title for a moment.
"Doesn't look like the Autobots know where they moved Megatron too." Tailwhip noted.
"No, they don't." Barricade concurred, his optics scanning through the ensuing voice reports and finding no relevant information in them. "But they did retrieve an encrypted file called 'Project Ice Man'."
"They believe that contains the information pertaining to Megatron's location." Stated Soundwave.
"Then we need to get our own copy of that file." Barricade quickly surmised. "Looks like we could get it from a human military server, too."
"Analysis: there is a human military operation being conducted on the other side of the planet." Soundwave quickly proffered. "Starscream divided our forces between here and there."
"That's right. And that's probably our best shot at getting easy access to their network." Barricade noted in agreement. After a moment's thought, his optics looked to Tailwhip. "Alright, rookie, time for you to step up. I'm sending you over there to oversee the mission to retrieve the Ice Man file. I'll have Blackout and Quake rendezvous with you, they've been lying in wait already and they'll be able to conduct operations in the sector." The interrogator simply stated. Tailwhip simply nodded.
"I'm on it."
Starscream's protege converted to vehicle mode and took flight, vacating the area as the sound of his rotors grew fainter and fainter in the night air. Barricade watched him leave for a moment, scrutinizing Tailwhip's shrinking form. "Do you trust him to perform adequately?" Soundwave asked once he was certain Tailwhip was long gone.
"Not entirely. Then again, that whole operation was Starscream's idea. He's the one who picked up the broadcasts first and deemed it a suitable site for analysis and data acquisition." Barricade answered honestly. "But there's no guarantee that particular server will suit our needs, let alone be accessible to them. There's other human data servers we've been able to pinpoint. I need you to crack the central operating server we uncovered." He said, looking straight at his fellow Megatron-supporter. "Do whatever you have to to access it. Send Rumble and Frenzy if you must."
"Affirmative." Soundwave droned before assuming alt mode and driving off at a determined pace. Slinking into the shadows, Barricade could feel his repair systems sorting out the damage already. It would still be a wait before he was fully operational but he had grown used to lying low and playing the waiting game. As operations sub-commander there was much he could do in the interim.
"Blackout, come in. We're ready to begin operations in your sector. I've got another Decepticon en route to oversee things." Barricade spoke into his long-range comms. A moment passed before a deep voice responded,
"Designation?"
"Tailwhip." On the other end of the comms, Barricade heard a clear growl of irritation from his fellow 'Con.
"Starscream's little aft-kisser." Blackout grumbled.
"Yeah, well, just roll with it. He'll explain the plan." Barricade stated, firm enough to force Blackout to cooperate.
"What about you?" Blackout asked.
"I'm going to have Soundwave investigate another angle. Hopefully he'll come up with something useful." The interrogator answered.
"Ah, so we're the bait." Blackout surmised.
"Yeah. Let Starscream think we're doing things his way. But if this pans out… well, we won't have to worry about him for much longer." Barricade stated with a confidence that convinced Blackout to go along with the plan.
"Affirmative." The Decepticon replied. "All hail Megatron!"
"All hail Megatron." Barricade repeated, returning the verbal salute.
Much later…
The world is patched with all manner of deserts. There are the cold deserts of the Arctic and Antarctic, the rocky plains of Mongolia and western North America, the high plateau of Tibet, and the altiplano of Bolivia and Chile. But those that are most familiar to people, those that individuals see in their mind's eye when they think of the word desert, are those composed of sand and gravel and heat.
It was late afternoon when Tailwhip arrived at Barricade's given rendezvous coordinates. His NEWS copter form barreling over a sea of sand dunes, he remained in vehicle form in order to be sure of who his allies were. The increased human military presence meant a stronger ability to defend themselves. He couldn't believe it but the little 'lessons' Barricade forced him through were actually becoming tangible. Their application was the reason why he wanted Quake and Blackout to meet him here, beyond the scope of human detection equipment.
He didn't have to wait for long. Tailwhip's energon detection scanners quickly turned up two Decepticon targets approaching him quickly. A visual scan of the area revealed two distinct vehicles; one was a Sikorsky MH-53 Pave Low support helicopter approaching from the sky and the other was an M1A1 Abrams main battle tank charging across the sand dunes. The tank was a special operations up-armed version with additional weaponry, sporting a 120mm main gun and two 30mm autocannons perched above on a secondary turret, on either side sat a pack of four rocket tubes, giving the tank an impressive amount of firepower.
They drew closer to form a triumvirate and dialogue was opened. Barely audible bursts of precisely modulated sound passed between helicopters and tank. What would have sounded like pure noise to a human was actually complex communication, too rapid and advanced for any primate brain to comprehend.
"Blackout! I haven't seen you since Tyger Pax!" Quake greeted jovially. "Barricade send you to this dump, too?"
"Ah yes. We left that Autobot city in ruins." The thunderous Blackout rumbled in response.
"Ain't that the truth." Quake agreed. The Decepticon demolitionist fell silent for a moment. "Who's the runt?" He wondered.
"The 'runt' is the one in charge of this mission." An indignant Tailwhip retorted. "If you need me to make that clearer… you work for me." He clarified, flexing a little bit of haughtiness. In response, the tank's main turret turned and pointed straight up at him.
"Remember that a lot of things could happen to you in a warzone. You never know when you could end up hit by friendly fire." Quake growled darkly. "Need me to make that clearer for you?"
"If you two femmes are done then let's get to work." Blackout interrupted, sounding bored with ther verbal spat.
"Hmph. Fine." Quake grumbled, lowering his gun. "So what's the plan, junior?"
"Our only lead on where the humans are keeping Megatron is a computer file called 'Project Ice Man'. We need to retrieve that file from their computer network." Tailwhip explained. Honing his own authority into play, he took a few cues from Barricade's decisiveness. He was team leader now and he needed to act like it. "Blackout, cut off their communications and access their network. Quake, you take out any forces that try to make a run for it. We don't want anyone calling in reinforcements. I'll create a distraction by attacking their airfields simultaneously." The plan sounded good and the following silence felt like a good one to Tailwhip. Then Quake cleared his vocals.
"Hey, uh, you might wanna think about a change of attire there, shorty." He remarked. "Those bright colours of yours don't blend in well around here."
"Quake's right." Blackout grunted, surveying the brightly coloured NEWS chopper in comparison to the militant nature of their surroundings. "I've uploaded the location of one of the human vehicle depots in the area. Go find something more appropriate for an alt mode."
"Fine. Move into position in the meanwhile." Tailwhip relented as the vehicles began to move in varying directions. "Let's show these insects a proper Decepticon welcome."
It was growing dark out. When the sun went down in the desert, it went down fast. In the distance, the lights of numerous wells flaring off natural gas imparted a slight and unnaturally rosy glow to the belly of the atmosphere. The thump-thump-thump of heavy rotors filled the night air as one Pave Low made an unexpected arrival at SOCCENT forward operations base. The ground crews on the tarmac reflected that it was one of the better night landings they had witnessed. Whoever was piloting the copter knew how to handle their instruments.
As it touched down it was immediately surrounded by a flotilla of armed Humvees. A few scattered soldiers' interest in the arrival suddenly doubled. They were startled to see that the encircling vehicles' heavy machine guns and grenade launchers were fully manned and aimed at the chopper. Something was up…
Spotlights swept across the helicopter as its blades continued to slow. One high-intensity beam settled on the cockpit to pin the pilot in its unrelenting glare. He was wearing a tan flight suit, a mustache, and a blank expression. The humans watching found it odd. Whatever the circumstances prompting the confrontation, with a dozen heavy weapons aimed in his direction one might think the guy would wave, make a face, give the Humvee gunners the one-fingered salute, or something. Instead he continued to just sit there, staring straight ahead as if paralyzed. Except that paralyzed pilots couldn't bring an aircraft as complex as an MH-53 gently to ground.
Inside the tower the anxious watch commander picked up a pair of binoculars and promptly focused them on the big helicopter's tail. "AF4," he muttered to himself. "All the way from Afghanistan, without us getting a copy of a flight plan. And why come here? Why not head for a closer base in Pakistan? Something's definitely not right." Raising his voice, he directed it toward his headset's pickup. "MH-53 pilot, shut down all systems and have your crew step out now. Nothing personal, but just to make base security happy, show no weapons as you come out."
The onlookers found themselves unsettled by the chopper pilot's subsequent lack of response to this order. The troops manning the surrounding Humvees were equally ill at ease. Nervous fingers hovered close to well-oiled triggers. As MPs working overseas they had been trained to respond to a whole gamut of exotic possibilities they would never be expected to have to deal with back home, but indifference was not among these.
"Hey..." The gunner in the nearest Humvee suddenly pointed.
Inside the chopper's cockpit, the man in the tan suit disappeared. Well, he didn't exactly disappear. To the gunner it looked as if he suddenly turned into a bad television picture, a sort of three-dimensional electronic frizz. Then he, and the visual static that had taken his place, vanished completely.
The penetrating, disquieting, ear-tingling shriek of a high-pitched energy pulse filled the desert night air, rising rapidly in intensity. Somewhere, something inorganic was screaming. It originated from within the helicopter.
Within the SOCCENT operations center the image on every screen and computer monitor suddenly turned to electronic mush. Readouts went berserk. Even the center's chronometers went crazy, with no two telling the same time. "Systems failing," a tech declared, his own voice rising sharply. "Radar's jammed." Involuntarily, he turned to look over his shoulder. With the apparent failure of his instrumentation, the only sensors he had left that he could trust were his own eyes and ears. "Electronic blackout… it's coming from the chopper!"
The sodium-vapor arc lights illuminating the landing pad began to grow brighter, brighter, pulsing… and then they exploded, a simultaneous flash that left drifting echoes lingering on everyone's pupils even as the tarmac was plunged into darkness. The chopper was still there, only… it wasn't. That is, there was definitely still something there, but it no longer looked like a chopper. It was changing, shifting, transforming. It had feet, and arms, and a head. It also had a name: Blackout. The machine that had made itself out of the chopper did not choose to identify itself.
The Pave Low's collapsed rotors dangled off his back almost like a cape. The nose and cockpit splitting in two to form two halves of a chest, a face-like symbol topped by a jagged crown appearing in between them. The rest of the copter chassis splayed out to form his arms and legs, allowing Blackout to tower over the shocked humans. They opened fire, fear guiding their actions. A barrage of varying-calibre fight pinging off his armored chassis as his overshields charged up. Giving the humans a moment to realize to their horror that their weaponry was ineffective, Blackout took their disadvantage and made it his own.
The twin shoulder launchers unleashed a pair of rockets that promptly blew the nearest Humvee to pieces and one of his vehicle mode M134 Miniguns emerged from the plating of his right arm to rip through the soldiers with a hail of superheated lead. The buzzsaw-like drone of his weapon cut through the night air as Blackout inflicted chaos upon the camp.
His optics surveying the base layout while his ambient transponders detected the communications between human units, Blackout forged a plan of action. His left hand automorphed into the long barrel of his impact mine launcher and the Decepticon fired a single shot towards the human command centre. The second his mine touched the concrete surface of a wall, an energon explosion was triggered and a wave of blue energy ripped through the building. The blast blew out every window in the control tower and sent those inside staggering backward or knocked them hard to the ground. Shattered glass cut and scoured exposed flesh, sending drops of blood splattering across the cleanly vacuumed floor. Instruments shorted out and the monitors closest to the windows crackled and went dark. So did every light inside the building, until the emergencies came on. A still-functional speaker began to call plaintively for a response from those who had been stationed inside, but none was forthcoming.
In response to the rising whine of the general alarm, soldiers poured out of barracks and other buildings in time to see Blackout fire off another impact mine and vaporize an entire row of neatly parked C-17 cargo planes, shattering fuselages and wings with a wave of destructive energy. Men and women ran for cover or dove behind anything standing and solid. Screams and shouts of confusion punctuated the periodic explosions. Making everything worse, fire and smoke combined with the darkness to reduce visibility to near nothing.
"Blackout reporting. Assault of the human base has begun." The lumbering Decepticon growled into his comms. In the early days of the war on Cybertron, Blackout earned the nickname 'the hound of Megatron' for his loyal execution of his leader's orders. He was always to be found looming powerful and silent behind Megatron's right shoulder. When given a target, he hunted it down with fierce determination.
These humans, no matter how insignificant they might be, were learning his determined nature firsthand.
"Confirmed. We're on our way." Tailwhip responded.
"Finally! I get to shoot something!" Quake cackled, sounding perfectly elated.
Arriving to Blackout's left, Tailwhip had scanned a Bell 407 GT combat helicopter in desert camo and was quick to attack the humans with a spray from his twin missile pods. Transforming and crashing into the midst of the chaos, Tailwhip made to add to it as his electron laser started lancing through vehicles in the base's motor pool. "You're cleared to engage, Blackout. Hack into their network."
"Wonderful. I'll try to contain my excitement." The huge Decepticon sarcastically grumbled. Making for the remnants of the command centre, Blackout glanced to his right as Quake's alt mode began shelling the base from afar. Belches of flame erupted from his main gun and ensuing explosions blew buildings to atoms. History taught Quake was nothing short of a berserker. When he entered a battlefield, he would not rest until anything and everything within sight is in smoldering ruins. In fact, Quake could get so caught up in the battle frenzy that his systems could overheat and shut him down. Many of the more forward-thinking Decepticons labeled him as being fundamentally attracted to, and nostalgic for, violence. Blackout didn't mind, so long as Quake did his job.
Inside the command center, those who had not been deafened by the electronic shrieking and subsequent detonations found their attention drawn upward as the roof was ripped from its support beams by an unseen force. Reactions ranged from utter panic to stunned fascination as Blackout's gigantic hand reached down and in. Technicians and support personnel rushed to scurry clear of its descent. Metal fingers probed consoles and walls, seeking and eventually finding what they were looking for. Punching into one bank of still-functioning consoles, giant smooth-surfaced digits ripped out a handful of cables. These came alive, snapping upward like snakes to wrap themselves around the massive metal forearm. Actinic light flared as one cable after another melded itself to the huge downthrusting limb while electronic shrieks and howls continued to reverberate through the violated command center. "Accessing human military servers now. Buy me some time to locate the project file." Blackout announced to his comrades.
"Roger that." Tailwhip confirmed as he sent a spray of missiles slamming into the parked helicopters on the base tarmac. His optics jerked up to recognize distant movement. A few functional Humvees and some personnel carriers were organizing themselves into a column. Tailwhip hopped on comms again. "Quake, I'm seeing a group of human vehicles trying to make a run for it. Don't let them."
"Ha ha, good. More things to blow up." Quake chortled in a grinding voice. His tank mode plunged into the smouldering base, heedless of functioning vehicles, wrecked vehicles, and humans in his way. He let his autocannons do the talking, heavy shellfire pounding anything and everything in his way as he lumbered past Blackout investigating the command centre.
Approaching the forming convoy from behind, Quake transformed in a cacophonous motion of clanking, grinding noise. He wasn't as big as Blackout but he cut his own rendition of an imposing appearance. Perched on either shoulder sat the tank's rocket launchers, but on his right forearm there also stood a quadruple-barrel gatling cannon and on his left there emerged an anti-personnel rotary machine gun between a pair of serrated claws. The twin autocannon turrets jutted up from Quake's back, presenting a very formidable silhouette as he stalked towards the functional vehicles.
One of the human gunners took notice and fired his rocket launcher right at Quake. The projectile missed as the Decepticon sidestepped the weapon dismissively. "You wanna play catch the projectile? Alright!" Raising his right arm, his quad-barrel cannon unleashed a devastating barrage of cybertanium pellets that shredded the vehicle as well as the occupants within. A blood-splattered wreck was left behind as Quake launched one of his missiles to strike the leading vehicle and blow it to smithereens. The convoy was trapped in sequence, making it easy for Quake to start picking them off. Humans poured out of trapped vehicles to try and stand a chance, but Quake promptly mowed them down with his anti-personnel machine gun. Swinging his ripper claws around, he cut the roof clean off one Humvee before he hoisted it off its wheels and threw it into the rest of the convoy. His cannon roared to life again, reducing the vehicles to burnt out scrap as their fuel tanks and engines exploded.
Still cycling through the human military server, Blackout had bypassed the code that controlled the drives locked into the console that was purposely isolated from every other system in the tower. The primitive nature of the humans' internet meant nothing to Blackout's abilities. Even though his skills were limited by Cybertronian standards, Files were being run. Files that should not have been active or generally visible. All were accessible to him. And it wasn't long before his keywords found a single identical match that fit his mission parameters.
"Project Ice Man… Mission accomplished." He mused as he copied the file to his personal data drives. Ripping the remainder of the computer hardware out, Blackout turned back to the rest of the base and automorphed his left arm again. Assuming a similar configuration to his mine launcher, his energon burst cannon fired rounds in three-shot squirts. A trio of energized particles slammed into some of the intact cargo planes on the tarmac, flammable jet fuel igniting in a fiery display that could be seen for miles. "I found the file we want." Blackout stated into his comms.
"Now that that's taken care of, I'd say we can blow this joint. Literally." Quake eagerly suggested. The pair waited for Tailwhip to say something, the taller Blackout glancing across the width of the base to see Starscream's protege busy shooting a tarmac full of helicopters to pieces.
"Well? What's the word?" He growled impatiently.
"Go ahead and raze this place. Leave no evidence of our presence. I'm going to contact Barricade and give him an update." Came the reply.
Tailwhip watched for a moment as Blackout and Quake took to the directive with gusto, Blackout shelling the remaining motor pools with explosive impact mines that cleared out whole swaths of ground and sent vehicles flipping through the air while Quake indiscriminately unleashed every weapon in his arsenal upon buildings, vehicles, and humans. The carnage thoroughly underway, the 'Con activated his long-range comms. "Tailwhip to Lord Starscream, come in."
"Report."
"We've learned a human military organization called 'Sector Seven' has the Decepticon imprisoned but we don't know their location. We've recovered an encrypted file called 'Project Ice Man' that should tell us where." Tailwhip explained.
"Excellent. Let me know the moment you find the Sector Seven coordinates." Starscream replied, sounding quite pleased with his progress. Tailwhip, however, wasn't finished yet. Something had been bothering him, like a Driller lodged in his brain module it burned and ate away at him in defiant refusal to let the matter be. Tailwhip knew better than to question his master's orders, but it seemed this mission was becoming a bigger and bigger waste the longer he was involved.
"Lord Starscream… can't you tell me more about our real mission? All we've learned is that a Decepticon crashed here ages ago." He asked, leaving out the details Barricade was so sure of. The silence across the comms was tense and Tailwhip was convinced he'd overstepped himself.
"I suppose it is time you were entrusted with higher matters, my protege." Starscream relented after a time. "I have reason to believe that the signal came from my predecessor, Megatron." His simple explanation suddenly confirmed a great many things and that surprised Tailwhip.
"What does that matter? You told me that Megatron abandoned us."
"True. But I never revealed to anyone why Megatron left us." Starscream continued. "You are familiar with the Cybertronian relic, the Allspark?"
"Of course. All Cybertronians were created from it. Legends say it was made by the creator god Primus." Every soldier, both young and old, Autobot and Decepticon, knew about the Allspark. It's powerful abilities was what started the Cybertronian Civil War after all. Megatron wanted it, Optimus wanted it, and they sparked a conflict that would last for millions of stellar cycles.
"Yes. And it is quite real, with power beyond your comprehension." The Lord Commander of the Decepticons concurred. "It was within our grasp, but the Autobots launched it into deep space. Megatron went after the Allspark, never to be heard from again until now. Therefore, if Megatron came to Earth…"
"Then the Allspark may be here as well!" Tailwhip realized, suddenly putting the pieces together. "So why not tell the others of this?"
"If the others were to learn of the Allspark's presence they would all fight to recover it for themselves. I only wish to retrieve it so that I may maintain order." Starscream stated with words so smooth even Tailwhip was hard-pressed to believe them. "I know you can be trusted with this information. For the good of all Decepticons, Tailwhip, you must help me to recover the Allspark." Starscream insisted. Loyal to his station and his commitment to the Decepticon hierarchy, Tailwhip was simply left to accept this new reality.
"I understand, Lord Starscream." He said simply. His simple acceptance seemed sufficient enough and starscream cut the comm on his end. Tailwhip clicked off just as Blackout and Quake approached him, the base a flaming ruin. Evidently they'd had their fun and were ready to move on.
"Hmm, you might be a runt, but you sure can handle yourself." Quake mused, appraising Tailwhip with new optics. "You can party with me anytime." He decided with a manic grin.
"Where to now?" Blackout questioned. Tailwhip looked between the two Decepticons and suddenly felt the weight of Starscream's secretive revelation fall upon his shoulder struts.
"Back to Tranquility. We're going to need Soundwave to crack the file." He said at length.