"Fix the coordinates, and set the self-destruction timer immediately!"

Optimus' voice rang in the femme's audios, her digits flying over the vibrant blue keyboard. There was no time left for waiting. Cybertron, once full of life, was drowned in despair. There were little to no Autobots left, yet it was swarming with Decepticons. Void of any resources, it was no secret that the planet will soon be abandoned by everyone.

The medium-sized starship, able to hold only a handful of bots, struggled to move. It was a barely functional, heavily-damaged ship, whose only purpose was to carry Team Prime away from the planet, before they would fall into Decepticon's claws. The last remaining resources of energon were used to fuel the Ark. It had taken countless attempts, but the starship had finally lifted off the ground.

In front of the Ark stood an ellipse-shaped spacebridge, or at least what was left of it. Not too far away from it, stood a single kiosk, serving as a control panel for the spacebridge. The screen read coordinates, hastily inserted in. "Hyacinthus, you need to hurry. We are locating ten Decepticon signals! You have maybe two minutes left." a mix of worry and impatience laced the voice over the communication link.

"I am working on it, Highway." She could feel it, the threat was nearby. The spacebridge had swirled into life, a bright blue and green vortex opening wide. Coordinates were locked in, with another set of them adjusted as a cover. The screen loaded another tab, showing the percentage until the self-destruction timer ends. For how long can she stay here until she is completely sure that this will work? "Come on, work!" Her digits gripped the sides of the kiosk.

The Ark would ascend from the dead soil, and began flying towards the spacebridge. Ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-nine…. one-hundred. Her pale purple optics shined in success. The screen flashed red, sounding a loud alarm about self-destruction. The femme took two fast steps away, before beginning to run towards the Ark. In the middle of her run, she transformed into an airplane, blasting towards the ship. In the background, a set of fliers had begun shooting towards her and the Ark.

Sailing through the area, avoiding the blast shots, Hyacinthus could see that the Ark was beginning to enter the spacebridge. Giving everything into speeding up, the airplane blitzed towards the Ark. The fire would never cease, and two blaster shots hit her from behind. With a grunt of pain, she tried to alter her trajectory to hit the side of the Ark, where the opening would be. However, the damage from the shot made it painful to stay in the vehicle mode, causing an unwilling transformation back into bipedal mode.

For a moment, it felt slow, as if she was about to experience death; a firm hold of her hand shook away the illusion. Looking up, she could see the familiar person. A black and silver frame, decorated with green stripes. "I got you, Brigadier." She said with a grin, tugging the femme in. Next to her was the orange-black scout, shooting at the planes. Once she was brought in, the metallic lid closed down, and the Ark sunk into the spacebridge.

"You are not escaping unharmed, Prime." A scowl escaped one of the Decepticons. Flying high, the plane transformed into bipedal mode; drawing out a bomb from her side, the Decepticon threw a moderately small yet impactful bomb. As soon as it latched on the starship, the bomb was activated. The femme transformed back into her vehicle mode during her free fall, watching as the spacebridge self-destructed, leaving nothing but debris behind. Descending to the ground, the femme shifted back, her bladed heels clicking against the metal grounds.

"Shadowblade to Commander Starscream. The Autobot's Ark has escaped through the spacebridge." A hiss could be heard, followed by an all too familiar taunting tone.

"It appears you have failed, Shadowblade. Lord Megatron would not be pleased…although, I am certain by the time he returns from his space endeavor, you will—" His words were swiftly cut by the assassin, who approached the kiosk. There wasn't a lot about it; the machine had ceased to work along with the spacebridge.

"I have planted a bomb on the ship. It may not send them straight to the scrapyard yet, but they will not be able to go too far either. Now, if you are done talking; I will have a spacebridge sent to my coordinates." Shadowblade dismissed Second in Command's words, finding no interest in listening to his monologue. With the smaller spacebridge opening in front of her, Shadowblade walked in, making it to the Communication sector of Nemesis.

. . .

A sharp pain throbbed through the femme's body, and before she could even realize it, she suddenly sat up. Her frame, composed of pale blue and light brown tones, had been dented in several places. Hyacinthus could feel scorching pain in her, and her mind felt dizzy. The floor felt cold and rough, as if it had sustained heavy damage. Maybe because it did. She placed her hand on her chassis, trying to feel the sparkbeat within. She was alive. She seemed okay. The pain was just the proof for it. Looking around herself, she had to see what happened.

The interior of the spacecraft waswrecked, at best. Cables torn and strung out, metal walls folded or completely exploded. She was in the backside of the ship; everyone else was supposed to be at the front. The ship was set under the angle; she didn't even notice it at first, until she tried to get up, nearly falling at the same time.

The beak of the ship sunk deep into foreign soil, and there were no lights. The sound of a pained grunt caught her attention. Pushing away from the spot, Hyacinthus tried to reach out to the fellow Autobot. The brigadier sloppily jogged to the other side of the room, finding a familiar femme on the floor.

Her frame cracked at several spots, making her leak energon. It wasn't a lot, but it was still bad. Hyacinthus dropped to her knees, quickly trying to tend to the femme. "Highway, can you hear me? Highway."

Hyacinthus called for her, unsure how to even help other than to try and sit her up slowly. There was an incomprehensible mumble; the thin, green visor, covering her optics only, lifted up fast.

"I can hear you just fine, if you lean a bit to the left, that is." Highway mumbled, trying to recover from the explosion.

Hyacinthus wrapped Highway's servo around her waist; the femme was roughly reaching the brigadier's chassis, yet she carried tremendous strength, despite being a compact bot. "Where's Bumblebee?" Hyacinthus inquired, helping Highway to get to her pedes. It appears she was closest to the bomb; Hyacinthus wasn't as close, though she suffered as well. Highway tilted her helm to the side, inching her left audio to Hyacinthus. Bending down slightly, Hyacinthus repeated the question.

"I…don't know? He headed towards the hallway, and then everything just spazzed out." Highway waved her free servo as she was explaining. The two would make their way over to the front side of the ship, where was the commanding area. "Ark doesn't look so good." the smaller femme said as they walked, trying to not fall on the way. The starship was, most certainly, out of commission.

"You know what they call it. One way ticket." Hyacinthus didn't know how to feel about the words she said. Should she be afraid? Or worried? Both? Neither? They cannot even tell if this was the right planet.

The only thing that stood between the two femmes and the main room were the dented, red doors that wouldn't open. Hyacithus tugged at them, trying to open them up, but it didn't work. Knowing who was behind those doors, a mild rush of panic enveloped her, and she used more force before she finally broke the lock and kicked the door open. The doors would burst, slamming into the wall behind them. "By the Allspark…" Hyacinthus whispered. The entirety of the room was in utter mess.

Broken windows, broken command consoles. Seats were crushed, wires and metal debris were everywhere. The first two bots they spotted were Bumblebee and Hailblades, who were thrown into the commanding panels. Hailblades was only slightly taller than the scout, colored in red and gray, sprinkled with a bit of blue over his shoulders, chest, and sides. Autobot insignia stood proudly at his left shoulder. Highway scurried over to the two of them, trying to make sure they were awake.

On the opposite side, Hyacinthus could see the medic, struggling to get up. She quickly headed over to him. "Ratchet?" There was a moment of pause, before Ratchet would look up; despite being still under the shock and pain, there was a glint of relief from his vibrant blue optics.

"Hyacinthus." The brigadier reached out to help him stand up. She leaned against the side control panels, while the medic got to his pedes. Brushing away energon from the corner of his mouth, he took a moment to register what was around him, and who.

Seeing the three on the other side, Ratchet frowned. "Are they alive?" Their life signals first, before anything else. And then, he can ask if they were okay. He could tell that Highway was still up, but he cannot be so sure for the other two.

"They are." Hyacinthus reassured him. But, where were Optimus and Bulkhead? She frantically looked around herself, only to notice that the two bots were outside of the Ark. The impact from crashing and the bomb explosion had caused so much force, causing the two to get flung outside. Ratchet raised his servo and brought it to his chassis, opening the life signal panel on his forearm. Thankfully, all of them were online.

No one appeared to be in a critical state, but he could tell that Highway took the worst hit. "We need to check on them immediately." Ratchet said, but as soon as he tried to move, he could feel his own pedes betray him; Hyacinthus swiftly caught him, looping her servo around his side.

"Slow down." There wasn't a lot of energy in him to fight the words, and he followed her advice. Activating her comm link, Hyacinthus tried to contact the missing mech. "Optimus, do you read?" A couple seconds passed, as she approached the trio, with the medic in tow.

"Loud and clear, Hyacinthus. Bulkhead and I are next to the Ark, as the result of the impact. How is everyone inside?"

Hyacinthus could feel her spark ease up when she heard Optimus' voice. He was alive, and sounded well enough. She hoped that Bulkhead was just as fine; she had faith in the olive-colored wrecker. "We are alive. Bumblebee and Hailblades haven't woken up yet, but they will soon." Or so she hoped, at least.

"Let's meet with Optimus." Highway suggested, as she brought Hailblades up, leaning him against her. Hyacinthus nodded; seeing the passed out scout, Hyacinthus slowly let go of Ratchet, and picked up the smaller mech.

It was difficult to maneuver around the broken panels and windows, but the group managed to get out of the Ark. They rejoined with Optimus and Bulkhead, with the latter sharing a concerned expression. Hyacinthus held Bumblebee in her arms, hoping that his optics would shine once again; Hailblades was first to wake up from the two. The thick smoke didn't seem to go away at all from the Ark. It was completely destroyed, and likely impossible to repair. One could inspect it deeper, but Hyacinthus had a hunch that it cannot get any better.

"Where are we?" Hailblades felt uneasy, looking around himself. It was daytime, but there was nothing around them. Desert, rocks, hills. Nothing.

"This should be Earth." Hyacinthus answered, leaving some doubt in her words.

"Should?" the red mech repeated inquisitively. Optimus had zoned out the talk between them, his optics locked on the starship. It's every dent, every crack and burning piece.

"Highway." Optimus suddenly called. He tried his best to hide his disappointment, speculating it was truly done for. "Is there…a chance for the spacecraft to be repaired?"

It would be a lie to say that Optimus wasn't hoping. There was still a part of him that desperately clutched the possibility of the ark being repaired. With a defeated tone, the femme shifted in her spot. "I…I do not think so." Highway admitted. Optimus shook his head, closing his optics for a moment, accepting the fate of the destroyed aircraft, and the fact they are now stranded on this planet.

"So…what do we do now?" Bulkhead piped in, uncertain what would be their next move. In the meantime, Bumblebee had slowly regained consciousness, shifting slightly in Hyacinthus' servos. Seeing the scout wake up and come back to his senses, Hyacinthus carefully set him down to his own pedes. His beeping interrupted the silence, confusion written all over his faceplates.

"This planet has its own indigenous species. We must make sure to keep them out of harm's way…and find a place where we can regroup and recollect." Optimus gave the only valid solution that they had.

Understanding the deeper meaning into his decision, Ratchet couldn't help but to feel like the planet's species will become a new source of problems. Hyacinthus noticed his unease, and placed her hand on his servo, signaling him to calm down. It was hard for all of them, but she didn't want him to completely lose it just yet. In the distance, there were a couple of airplanes and helicopters flying towards them.

"Decepticons!" Hailblades shouted, feeling his energon run cold.

Everyone had transformed their servos into their weapons, except Optimus. "Hold your fire." He ordered.

There was no way Decepticons had traced them to Earth. These had to be Earthlings. The group stood firm as they were inspected by the small group of airplanes and helicopters, before two of them landed down. From one of them came a chubby fleshling of dark tone, adorned in soft material.

Judging on the motion of his lips, and the sound coming from him, he was definitely talking to them. But…no one really understood him. They all seemed to stare at one another for an awkward minute. Team Prime lowered their weapons, transforming them back into their own servos.

"Okay, give me a moment. I can solve this." Hailblades said. "I've done this before. It's part of the programme." The red and gray mech would carefully approach the humans; the guns were immediately pointed at him. He ignored it, and slowly crouched down to his left knee. He offered his left digit to the fleshling; he was met with a very stern gaze, another round of incomprehensive monologuing, before the fleshling gave in, and placed his hand in Hailblade's digit. On his right servo, one lid popped up and showed a hologram with information being listed down.

"And what exactly is he doing?" Bulkhead asked, sharing the curious gaze with Bumblebee and Highway.

"He is obtaining information about the species." Optimus didn't even look at his teammates, focused on the interaction. "Hailblades' primary function is espionage. Language barriers became a problem once our war expanded further. In our ranks rose a division that specializes in deciphering species, their nature, and their language, based on their biological trace." Optimus didn't expect to have one of those spies join the Team; he knew Hailblades was a spy, but not part of that particular unit.

The human appeared to be impatient, as there was a lot of yapping and foot tapping as well. Once when Hailblades' hologram showed encircled results, Hailblades' helm dipped down for a moment, before he finally spoke again. But, this time, it was his team that didn't understand him.

"What in the name of Uncle Sam's hat is happening here now?!" Agent Fowler impatiently fussed. He cannot understand these 'robots', as he calls them, and just until now, they all had their weapons on his team! It was outrageous. Part of him was still battling the fact he was seeing aliens. Genuine aliens.

"General Bryce is going to lose it." a woman's voice called, and Fowler turned around to see the agent, who had vibrant copper hair and a confident look in her eyes, with a puzzled expression on her face.

"Tell me about it. I didn't think my first time meeting aliens would be giant trash cans!"

When Hailblade's helm suddenly leaned to his chest, Fowler immediately pulled his hand away. There was a moment of silence, and the mech would slowly lift his head up, this time his cerulean optics striking the human. "That's rude to say." he smirked — it was a groundbreaking moment for humans and cybertronians.

"Wait, I can understand you now?" Fowler asked in disbelief.

Hailblades looked at the rest of the humans, trying to see if they would be so kind as to lower their weapons. "And I can understand you too. Isn't that great?"

"Don't get cheeky now, soldier. Who are you? What are you? What are you doing here?" Fowler's shot rapid questions, to which Hailbades felt like it wasn't on him to answer.

"My name is Hailblades. I think it would be better if you spoke to my leader about everything else." The spy would slowly get up as he said that.

"To the tin soldier over there? How!?" The accent was strong in the human, and Hailblades found it amusing.

"Is your entire species this impatient? You all live up to, what, ninety years if you're lucky? We've been here for centuries, some even eons. A couple of minutes surely won't make you catch rust."

With that, Hailblades ceased to pay attention to the humans, and instead, turned to his team. With everyone's attention on him, Hailblades showed the hologram of the information collected from the human. "I have gathered all the data. Their species is called homo sapiens, and from my research, they actively use over seven thousand and one hundred languages, with almost three hundred writing systems. However, this one in particular uses one that's called the English language, with latin script."

"Does it mean that you will need to translate everything for us?" Highway interrupted, and Hailblades shook his helm.

"No. Believe it or not, but the concept of their language, it's not too far away from ours. There are core differences of course, but some parts aren't that different. For example, phonology. They could even understand Bumblebee if they have a writing system for sequences of differing signal durations." Hailblades explained, as he would then show them a unique code.

"This is the matching code. There is a technique that allows you to change the transmission and adjust it. So, what they say will be processed and understood by us. It takes a bit of time, but it works." Hailblades noticed the medic's interest, as he crossed his servos, with his two digits scratching his chin.

"Timewave's rule." Ratchet said, to what the red mech agreed with.

"Precisely."

It had taken about ten minutes for the team to get adapted to the method; Ratchet knew about it from the medical aspect, and he had better means of helping others get adjusted to the language. However, after a while, they managed to get it to work. On the other hand, Fowler couldn't stop watching them.

Flabbergasted and silent, partially annoyed. He understood the importance of the task, and potentially, the future mission of dealing with them as well. The Pentagon was the first thing that showed up in his mind, and the world of trouble that these giants might bring with themselves to humanity.

"Now that we finally understand each other, care to tell us who you are and what you are, again?" Fowler demanded. This time, Optimus stepped in. The ground shook under his weight as he made a step closer. Standing at his frightening height of thirty feet, Optimus had to kneel down and lean closer to Fowler. The agent moved away for a step, not wanting to be too close to the alien.

"My name is Optimus Prime. We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron, also known as Autobots." The words sunk deep into Fowler's skin, though he didn't allow himself to appear intimidated.

"Right. And what are you all doing here? I assume that wreck over there is your ride? This ain't no bus stop." Optimus' optic ridges furrowed at that statement, though the human's ignorance would not be enough to agitate the leader.

There was a line of disappointment in his tone. "We have…arrived to regroup, and find a way to heal our home. Our planet, ravaged by war, has been depleted of life." There was more to it, but until they got used to this language together, Optimus had to take things slow, to lay down all the important matters first. It wasn't the first time Cybertronians had visited Earth, but he wasn't sure if he had means of finding the base just yet. There was one, left by previous tenants, but they have to locate it.

Fowler had taken some time to think, but this was a lot to take into account. He then tilted his head to the side, looking at the rest of the team. All of them were different looking and strange. "So, who do you have in your team?" Fowler asked, and Optimus slowly rose up. He took a step to the side, before presenting his Autobots.

The first to show was the red and gray mech, who waved at Fowler. Standing slim, roughly twenty-two feet in height. "You have already met our combatant, Hailblades." Next in the line was a yellow and black scout, standing eighteen feet tall. "Scout Bumblebee." Bee beeped at Fowler, whose face grimaced. This one isn't going to talk with him if he is only beeping.

"Highway, our mechanic." The femme's green visor was removed from her optics. Seventeen feet tall, very close to Bumblebee, tilting her head to the left side, to hear better. She smiled at Fowler, giving him a nod as a greeting. Next to her was a much taller femme, towering over everyone but Optimus; twenty-seven feet tall, and of unusual frame, with both wings and tires alike. "Brigadier General, Hyacinthus."

Her optics, appearing light violet, sparked with joy. "Soldier."

To her side stood a red and white medic, just about hardly reaching twenty-five feet. "Our physician and scientist, Ratchet." Ratchet didn't say anything; he merely watched the humans, failing to withhold a scoff. And last was a large, circular almost mech, a bit taller than the medic. "And our combatant, Bulkhead." Fowler was silent the entire time, listening carefully to what Optimus said while introducing his team to him.

They all knew the question that would follow. It didn't need to be voiced. Where do they go now? What do they do? They've been spotted by humans already. "Look, I cannot let you just go all willy-nilly like that." Fowler started, unsure where he would even go with this. "Not as robots."

Those words made Ratchet tsk and look away, feeling insulted. "Robots…" he muttered under his breath.

"Can you guys hide yourself somehow?" His question received various nods. "Then we can work on this somehow. I talk to my superiors, and none of you make any problems under the Sun. Got that, Prime? And then you can…take your break, whatever." Even if there was a fine line of disrespect in his words, Optimus could tell that he was just concerned for his planet.

"Talk about audacity." Highway whispered to Hailblades, who nodded in agreement.

This time, the human woman stepped next to Fowler. "The way you speak about your home makes it sound like war is still going on. Your enemies…did they follow you here? It's hard to believe they didn't, if your ship looks like that." She pointed at the Ark.

"Agent Marshall is right." Fowler put more weight to her words.

"While our war is still going on, our enemies are several galaxies away from us…and they do not have means of tracking us down here. Not yet." Optimus answered.

"As for your question, how we came here, we have used our own means of intergalactic transportation. It was a one way ride." Hyacinthus added, setting her hands on her hips. With those answers, the human appeared to be somewhat satisfied. As much as possible. How are they even going to remove that ship from these grounds, Fowler didn't know.

"About that…disguise. You said you can do it. How?" Fowler gave his one last question. He noticed that everyone had wheels, which made him wonder if they could transform into vehicles. But they had no ground vehicles present.

At this request, Hyacinthus stepped forward. From her optics, light beamed at one of the airplanes, scanning it thoroughly. Once her t-cog had adjusted, she transformed into the same model of the airplane. "Is this sufficient, human?" She inquired, making both Fowler and Marshall's eyes widen in surprise.

"Fowler. Its'...Agent William Fowler." Now, he could definitely enjoy transforming vehicles. Perhaps, the Pentagon doesn't need to hear about this case. Convinced, Fowler adjusted his tie, and looked up at Optimus with a serious expression.

"Very well then. I will see what we can do."