Welcome back! So, this takes place about six or seven years after Bridge To Chaos, although you don't need to read it to understand what is going on. The first page or two is mostly setting up what happened between those seven years. Admittedly, after playing Halo: Fireteam Raven at an arcade was when the idea sprung to mind. Can't wait to share these guys with y'all!

There will be some pairings and some love scenes, but nothing that can't go in a disney princess movie, which is my style: The cute and sweet stuff. And Dark of the Moon and beyond is not considered part of this... well, I guess you could call it an AU.

I don't own Transformers, although I do enjoy collecting the figures. I don't own Halo or Fireteam Raven or Disney

Onward to the universe of Fireteam Phoenix.

Chapter One: The Ranks

Lieutenant Autumn Copperhead. Lieutenant. It felt amazing to Autumn to move up in the ranks. The 22-year-old could hardly believe it. Starting out in NEST as a raw recruit, five years ago the drill sergeant was screaming at her and the other guys in her battalion to "Move your sorry asses!". She smiled to herself, remembering how Hunter and her met their guardians, Ironhide and Ratchet, seven years ago, and how she never imagined it would lead to this. Her brother didn't have a high rank. Yes, he was in NEST too. He also had married his high school sweetheart a month or so earlier, since he was leaving to go back on base and didn't want anyone to "Steal his lady", as he said. Caroline was one of the kindest women anyone could ever meet and Hunter and Caroline were over the moon for each other.

The two siblings, however, were officially the youngest soldiers on base. Everyone, human and bot, was protective of the two young soldiers. Speaking of bots, Autumn, Hunter, Ironhide, Ratchet, Arcee and Chromia had been put together at Optimus's request to form a special ops force. Optimus also gave Autumn the perilous task of leading it. Sometimes she wondered what Optimus was thinking, but in the year and a half that they'd been at this, the Fireteam had been doing very well. It helped that the six already had a deep friendship forged years before. And although you would think the two siblings growing up, and Ironhide and Ratchet bonding with their respective sparkmates would change the friendship, but it had not. If anything, Chromia and Arcee simply fit right in with the four. Ratchet developed special metal armor and helmets (the armor reminded Autumn of Master Chief from halo, while the helmets where like stylized biker helmets, but the clear visors had a Heads-Up Display) for the siblings to protect them and Ironhide had made the two siblings' special weapons (In direct violation in the autobot-human treaty, which had thoroughly ticked General Morshower and Optimus off).

Sam and Mikeala (Who tied the knot as well) were often on base. Sam was too much of a security breach for the government to be comfortable with him running around. He was going to be the autobot's human ambassador in politics. Diego Garcia had houses and everything needed to be its own town, even a school for kids of soldiers. Many spent extended time periods on base, so it was only logical that a more permanent set up would have to be made. Since all of the people on base (including Sam and Mikeala) had homes stateside, there was a dock with ferries to get to the States.

The four humans had been given autobot designations too, given by Arcee, Ratchet, Bumblebee and a few others. Autumn got given the name "Phoenix" after her first battle which she'd fearlessly burned an actually bridge to stop the decepticons from getting into an isolated town. Hunter got nicknamed "Payback" after his revenge he got on Bumblebee for putting his truck upright on its tailgate. Sam got "Fanboy", a complete joke toward his job. Mikeala got "Spitfire", suggested by Wheelie who obviously remembered the way their first interaction went, getting his eye torched.

Autumn set a stack of paperwork down on her desk in her office. OddBird the Laptop-Bot transformed and met her gaze.

"Phoenix, are you sure that all this… slagging flattened tree pulp is necessary?"

"Flattened tree pulp? What?" She shook her head. "You mean paper?"

"Yeah, that glitched stuff."

"For the last time OddBird, yes, it is."

The little bot picked up a sheet and was reading it.

"Field Report 5/8/2014."

"OddBird, put that down, I don't want to lose it."

"I'm surprised you haven't lost anything on your desk yet." An amused chuckle sounded behind her. She spun around to see one big neon yellow autobot and smiled.

"Hey, its organized chaos,"

"I only see fragging chaos, lieutenant." He looked like he was smiling.

"Ratch', you don't have to call me lieutenant, makes me sound like I'm someone important."

"You are important."

"If you say so," Autumn rolled her eyes with a smile. She tossed a blue highlighter at him playfully, and it hit Ratchet right between the optics.

"Autumn- Phoenix!" a voice called down the hall which could only belong to one person: Sam Witwicky. "Uh- Lieutenant!"

"I'm sure everyone knows now." She had a crooked grin. "The good ol' NEST News Network."

After witnessing the way information spread like a wildfire throughout the NEST base, Hunter dubbed it the NEST News Network.

Sam breathlessly shoved a paper in Autumn's hands.

"What is this?"

"Lennox wants your team to be ready to put wheels up in twenty minutes." Sam explained, catching his breath. "There's a few decepticon signals tracked to an old town in Colorado. It could be nothing, but Lennox said he'd rather check it out and find nothing than leave it and have a problem later. The town was already evac-ed."

"Alright." Autumn nodded. "We're gonna have to track down everyone first. Have You seen Hunter anywhere?"

"He's in his office, video calling Caroline." Sam said. "I think she wants him to redo the kitchen when he gets home, stateside."

Autumn snorted. "Sounds like Hunter's problem. Ratchet, meet me in the main hangar, I'm going to get Hunter. See if you can get a hold of everyone else. I'd like to get going ASAP."

Ratchet nodded and started toward the main hangar with Sam. Autumn walked into Hunter's office and stood behind him.

"Hey Autumn!" Hunter exclaimed. "What's going on?"

"I gotta steal you from your wife for a bit." She chuckled, then waved to Caroline on the screen. "Sorry Caroline, but I'll return him good as new after I'm done."

She laughed. "That's Ironhide's job, remember?"

Autumn nodded. Caroline had threatened Ironhide after her wedding to make sure Hunter came back in one living and breathing piece, or she was going to "weld his fragging cannons to his aft, fire them off, and scrap whatever slag was left for parts". When Hunter asked why she cursed at him in autobot she said she was just speaking the same language as him, and the crazier part was she lived to tell the tale that she scared Ironhide into submission. The humans who worked with or around the Cybertronians picked up on their bad words. Hunter argued that they weren't as bad as English curse words, and he had a point. Aft loosely translated to butt or jerk, Slag translates to worthless melted metal, slagging translated to melting, fragging translated to getting a computer virus, frag just meant a computer virus, and glitch meant idiot or stupid.

Hunter turned off the video call, and the two siblings rounded up their gear, got their armor on and got to the main hangar in under 3 minutes. Autumn jogged over to Ratchet and Arcee.

"Where's Ironhide and Chromia?" She asked.

"On Earth?" Sam offered.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious." Autumn rolled her eyes.

"I thought it was funny…" Sam's eyes darted from Autumn to Hunter. "You guys don't think so?"

"Slag no, Sam." Hunter shook his head.

"Don't you mean Fanboy?" Arcee asked.

Chromia came into the hangar. Autumn was slightly annoyed that a big black mountain of metal wasn't with her.

"Where is Ironhide?" Hunter asked.

"He's gonna be staying here if he doesn't hurry up." Autumn growled.

"I'll go get him." Hunter sighed and went to go get the mech.

"You think he'll get Ironhide to come?" Sam asked.

"He better." Autumn snarked.

Hunter came back a moment later, Ironhide in tow. Autumn spun around toward the hangar doors.

"Let's move it!"

After airdropping in, The Fireteam regrouped at the edge of the town.

"Ironhide, you and Hunter take the southwestern quadrant, Arcee, Chromia, you have the Eastern quadrant. That leaves Ratchet and I with the Northern quadrant. Radio in if you see anything and if you can, wait for backup before you engage."

The team split up. Autumn and Ratchet walked through a narrow street near the small town's downtown, both with guns at the ready, Ratchet's mounted lights providing enough light for the pair to see by.

"This would be a bad spot to get ambushed in." Autumn mused.

"I concur." Ratchet agreed.

After about an hour of searching and little chat in between, the comms buzzed.

::We found cons! They're engaging, we need backup!:: Hunter said urgently.

::We're closest.:: Arcee responded. ::We'll be there in a minute.::

"Slag!" Ratchet exclaimed, running behind Autumn who was in a dead sprint. "We're too far away to get there in time."

"We have to try!"

At the scene of the battle, Ironhide and Hunter were losing ground and losing it fast. The two were outnumbered two to three.

"We need to fall back." Ironhide looked at the soldier at his side. Hunter nodded and followed him as they gave up ground. Arcee and Chromia's motorcycles spun around the corner, adding turning the tides of the fight. The two decepticons where taking hits on all sides now. That was until Hunter noticed the sun reflect off something in the sky.

::There's a jet up there, definitely not civilian.:: Hunter said between ducking a shot.

::Think it's Starscream?:: Chromia asked.

::I'm radioing base right now, seeing if they can get us some info. That's an F-22 alright.::

::I can see how this is going to go.:: Ironhide grumbled.

::Just got confirmation from Morshower. That's not a one of ours.::

::Could it be from another country?:: Arcee asked, clearly wanting to hold onto hope that it might not be Starscream.

::No other country has F-22s, nor would another country have a fighter jet in American airspace, at least not without escorts.:: Autumn responded.

:: We're gonna get our afts whooped.:: Ironhide bitterly replied.

Suddenly, the jet dropped down and, unfolding like origami, took the form of Starscream. He got a shot on Ironhide, nailing his hipbolt, taking the weapons specialist down. Hunter wasn't paying attention till it was too late. Someone tackled him out of the way. He blinked to stare into the face of his sister.

"Thanks, Autumn." He said, getting up.

"Talk later." She told him.

Starscream had Ironhide pinned under him. More decepticons arrived, outnumbering Fireteam Phoenix 10 to six. Ratchet ended up having to hold Chromia back so she wouldn't get hurt when things turned into a Mexican Standoff and Starscream was threatening to kill her sparkmate. Autumn contacted Morshower and Lennox for a bit of help.

"Stand down, Autobots." Starscream snarled.

Hunter met Autumn's gaze and she nodded once decisively, taking out a smoke marker.

::The F-18s ETA is 20 seconds.:: An F-18 pilot said over general commns

::Aim for the orange smoke.:: Autumn responded, before turning to the deadlock in front of her.

"Hey Screamer." Autumn said. Although Hunter couldn't see her face, he could hear the smirk in her voice.

"What, insolent human?" He snarled.

"Catch." Autumn chucked the smoke marker at him when the roar of jet engines filled the air. The F-18s one after another hit their targets. Starscream and the rest of the 'cons retreated heavily damaged. Ironhide shakily got to his feet, just to be mother-henned by Chromia.

"That could've gone better." Hunter snarked.

"Could've been worse." Autumn offhandly told him. She turned to her team. "Let's get going."

When the C-17 landed and Fireteam Phoenix got on the ground, Galloway and Sam, the latter one grinning like a fool, greeted the young yet capable lieutenant, and the autobot medic, in his alt mode, as the rest of her team rushed off to clean their gear, clean themselves, and get something to eat. Ratchet was definitely Fireteam Phoenix's unofficial SIC.

"I heard how you told Starscream to catch." Sam grinned even bigger. "You are full of surprises, aren't you?"

"We don't like surprises." Galloway muttered. "You ruffians caused damage."

"Air strikes tend to do that, Sir." Autumn snarked, leaning against Ratchet's grill. "The town was evacuated and the targets were marked. And, considering that we didn't cause any collateral or drastic damages, I'm inclined to say that this last mission was one of our cleaner ones."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, sir."

"They did stop the decepticons." Sam put in.

"Morshower is calling a meeting. He wants the two of you to be there." Galloway said, changing the subject. Sam seemed to have a triumphant look, until Galloway added. "He wants you there too, Alien boy."

"That would be Fanboy, not Alien boy," Sam grinned, then added. "Sir."

Galloway arrogantly nodded and left.

"Pleasant, isn't he?" Autumn said dryly.

"That man is terribly misinformed if he believes the decepticons will refrain from causing damage. Granted, we also take some fault, but it would be foolish to believe that." Ratchet commented.

"I can't stand him." Autumn shook her head slightly. "He's an idiot."

"Idiot he may be, he still should be respected." A black and white police car who could only be one bot's alternate mode stopped beside Ratchet.

"It's not like we're saying it to his face, Prowl. Even I know that would be crossing the line." Autumn told him. She looked thoughtful for a moment. "I wonder what the 'cons were doing in Colorado."

"I don't know, but in time we'll find out." Ratchet responded.

"Yeah, you're right. Ratch', if you want, you can go get yourself cleaned up before the meeting starts. We might be there awhile."

The bright yellow mech chuckled and transformed when Autumn stepped away from him. "That, I will do."

An hour later, Autumn had cleaned herself up, and was typing up some reports for the meeting. Dressed in army fatigues, she worked quietly. She had ten minutes before the meeting would start at 1700 hours. Sam walked in, accompanied by Mikeala. She smiled and shook her head at him.

"Hey, Spitfire, Fanboy." Autumn's gaze flicked to them for a brief moment before back to her laptop. "Anything I can help you with?"

"Uh," Sam hesitated, but Mikeala shoved him in the back, before he blurted out. "What time is 1700 hours?"

"5 o'clock." Autumn smirked and shook her head. Whenever Sam was in the metaphorical doghouse or getting teased, Autumn never used his autobot designation. "Sam, you got to set your phone to military time. You're on a military base for cryin' out loud. If you can't figure it out, have Wheeljack help you." She added the last statement as a backhanded afterthought. She printed out the documents and stapled them, and checked the time.

"We should get going."

"Probably." Sam didn't sound like he wanted to go.

"It's gonna be boring one." Autumn looked sympathetic.

"Long, too." Sam added.

"Can't we just skip it?"

"You could, but Morshower is my commanding officer, so if he wants me there, I kinda gotta be there."

"Misery has company." Mikeala told him, then looked over at Autumn. "I'm coming too."

"Run while you still can." Autumn joked. "Its not gonna be a fun one."

"Maybe." She shrugged. "But I can't just leave Sam to the wolves."

"What, you mean us ruffians?" Autumn gestured to Fireteam Phoenix's symbol on her desk. One side was an autobot symbol, the other half was a phoenix.

"Galloway still calls you guys that?" Mikeala asked.

"You think he'd stop?" Autumn replied.

"True."

"Let's get going, though."

The three made their way to the meeting room. It was a huge room with a large, raised platform with a big table and many chairs. Surrounding the platform was large chairs for the Autobots, whichever ones it may be. Ratchet was already by one end, quietly conversing with Lennox as everyone waited to start.

The meeting went on for 2 hours with no apparent end in sight. Sam looked over at Autumn, who shrugged and then turned her attention to what Prowl had to say. Mikeala left after it hit the 1 hour 45 minute mark.

"We need to keep tomfoolery at a minimum." He said. "My proposal is a list of rules to keep this from happening."

"Don't we have enough rules and restrictions as it is?" Autumn pointed out.

"I believe this will limit the twins' monkey business."

"Which ones? Dumb and Dumber or Terror twins?" Autumn asked. She called Skids and Mudflap Dumb and Dumber.

"Sunstreaker and Sideswipe."

"Even if you did set those up, they would probably just continue to do it, and just grin and bear the punishment."

"Autumn has a good point." Lennox commented. "It might do more harm than it'll help."

Optimus and Morshower also denied the request, and Wheeljack was requesting materials. Autumn could care less, until she heard one of the requests.

"…and several potted plants."

"What in the world are you going to do with plants? Try to make Hunter smell good? We all know that's a losing battle." She quipped. Everyone chuckled at that. It truly was a losing battle to get Hunter to smell good.

"I want to study them." Wheeljack looked sheepish. "I'd also prefer if it was a few different types of plants."

Autumn shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"I'm sure we can honor that request." Morshower commented, then raked his gaze over everyone. "Does anyone have anymore they want to contribute."

Sam held his breath, hoping no one else did. Of course, Galloway had to raise his hand.

"Considering Fireteam Phoenix's latest mission," He started. Autumn visibly ground her teeth. "The damage was significantly high-"

"Let me stop you there, Galloway." Autumn cut him off. "Not one building in the entire town was damaged, and no one, civilian or otherwise, was hurt. The only thing that was damaged was the landscaping."

"How do you know?"

"Because I made sure to take stock of the damage, and you so graciously requested us to do." She spat.

Galloway seemed slightly taken aback by the soldier's hostile response, before offering his own. "Of course, Lieutenant. If you and your ruffians hadn't caused so much damage in the first place-"

"That's a load of BS." Autumn snapped.

"-Then we wouldn't have had such issues."

"Galloway, can I ask you a question?" The lieutenant asked.

"Yes."

"how do you have friends?"

Suddenly chairs got pushed back, things on the table got knocked over. Galloway stood up and started shouting at Autumn, who calmly responded with some spirited retorts. She may be an adult, even legal to drink (Which she never did), but she still kept her teenage girl sass and cheekiness.

Needless to say, Morshower had ended the meeting very quickly. Autumn, Sam and Ratchet walked through the hall.

"Are meetings like that supposed to take that long?" Sam asked.

"I don't know. I do know its 1930 hours though." Autumn glanced at her watch.

"Already?"

"It took two and a half hours." Autumn reminded him. Eventually, Ratchet made his way to the med-bay. He wanted to clean it up. He smiled when a purplish pink bot turned to met his gaze. Ratchet took both of Arcee's servos and held her close to him.

"I love you." She whispered.

"I love you too." He murmured softly in her audio receptors. He let her out of the embrace and lifted his gaze to his workbench. His tools were strewn about. He began to organize them, Arcee giving him some company.

On the other side of base, Hunter was on the phone with his wife.

"I'm coming to the base," She told him. "You probably could use some company."

"Alright. I'll see if Ironhide or Chromia can pick you up." He responded. "Can you please bring me some of your homemade cookies?"

Caroline laughed on the other end of the phone. "How could I ever forget?"

So that's chapter one. I'm going to try to get chapter 2 up soon.