Disclaimer: I only own my OCs.

Pandimala: *relaxed* I haven't felt this good in age.

Authoress: *lounging* Me neither. *stretches* I needed this vacation.

Knockout: Hopefully, that means you can get us up to speed.

Authoress: *smirks* That's the plan.

Knockout: *worried* I don't like that look.

Chapter 9: Roadbumps

General Bryce's 1st P.O.V.

It was difficult not to jump ahead on these reports. I felt like we were crawling forward over broken glass to route out the MECH agents among us. They were deeply rooted, that was for sure. It took all of my willpower every fucking day to not take in the traitors that we knew about. But we had given so much to make sure that we succeeded in this that I couldn't rush forward like I wished to.

Our deeply rooted operatives in their lines, though few in numbers, were waiting for the day when we would send the message, telling them that the investigations were over; we were ready for them to come home. But that day was not today. Today, I had to keep moving forward with these investigations.

At the same time, I also had to deal with five new bots that were currently training with their alt modes. It had been two weeks since they chose their alternate modes and new designations. Thankfully, there had only been a few mishaps with the training so far. But I couldn't hope that streak would continue. Injuries were a part of training, as much as we tried to avoid them, and those five would have a difficult time.

Lunarblaze had suffered two of those injuries during her training with Thundercracker. Flight systems, as I knew from working with our aircraft, could be complicated for someone who wasn't used to those systems, and she had a couple of crashes when those systems would be confused. However, she hadn't had an incident for four days, so the trainers were hopeful that she was mostly past that stage.

The only other injury was Morphia. Five days ago, the femme and Springer had been taking a practice flight to retrieve supplies at one of our other bases. The flight there had gone smoothly, and the supplies had been loaded into Springer as smoothly as they could be. However, since Springer would be unable to transform on the return flight, Skywarp had detached from his scouting group to meet them.

And somehow, word got back to Romanus that his carrier was flying with a Decepticon when she had left with Springer only, and he had tried to contact her comm unit.

Morphia didn't have much training answering her comm while in her alternate mode and became disoriented during the call. That caused her to crash. Thankfully, Skywarp had been able to get her to transform back into her bot mode and helped soften the fall. But, her rotors had been damaged to the point where the medics wanted her out of alt-mode training for at least five days.

Due to his communication with Morphia, which they were forbidden to do during training, Romanus was on restrictions. From what the reports said, Red Alert had locked his t-cog down ever since. The report said he would get the use of it back once his carrier could continue her training. The young mech didn't take that well, but given everything that had happened, he should be lucky that was all the punishment he faced.

The ringing of my phone drew me out of my thoughts. I wasn't expecting any calls today. Who was calling? "Hello? This is General Bryce."

"General Bryce, this is Harold Hershel,"

Thankfully, I wasn't drinking anything as the man on the other side said his name. Given that I was General over a secret military base, few people could override my decisions. Harold Hershel, Secretary of Defence, was on that shortlist. "Sir, I'm sorry for my lack of,"

"It's fine, John. This is more of an informal call anyway." I had met the man a few times, but I must have made a better impression on him than I thought if he was alright with throwing decorum out for this call. "I'm calling to give you a heads-up on a situation that will affect you."

"What is it?" If the Secretary of Defense thought I should be informed about what was happening, I had to assume that it would not be good.

There was a slight pause on the other side before the man spoke. "During one of my meetings today, it was determined that Unit E be selected for a visit by an Inspector General team."

Shit.

"Sir, is that wise? I have five subjects that are still in training and that might not mesh well with an inspection." This felt like a disaster waiting to happen, and I would be stuck right in the middle of it. Four previous civilians would not have the decorum that the IG office looked for in someone staying at a US military base, and I didn't want to see the aftermath of that. Thinking of Romanus's attitude as of late, I felt like this would be even worse off.

Unfortunately, it seemed as if this was inevitable. "I tried to get Unit E off the list, but it was for nothing. Unfortunately, it's been too long since your last inspection, and they all but demanded that you be included." The man then let out a sigh. "I know you are facing internal struggles with MECH infiltrators. We've been weeding out MECH infiltrators across dozens of military installations, and those are just the ones that have been stupid enough to commit another crime to explain their removal. They couldn't have picked a worse time for this."

"You can say that again," I agreed with the man. "This is going to be a pain in the ass."

A laugh came from the other side at that. "I'm sure you can handle it. What's an IG inspection compared to watching our friends there?"

"It would be better if I weren't going to also deal with the IG team," I grumbled into the line before I remembered who I was talking to. "Oh, um, sorry, sir."

Thankfully, I didn't seem to anger him. "No, we are placing extra stress on your base. If you all survive this investigation in one piece, I'll see if I can get some more funding your way. With our visitors there, you will need a lot more space for what they might need as well as your own needs. Good luck, General Bryce."

"Thank you, sir," I thanked the man before the line disconnected. "'Good luck' my ass," I grumbled as I hung up the phone and leaned back in my seat. This shit was not going to be easy. He better get us billions to compensate for the shit that I was about to go through. With the luck we were having, we'd probably end up with one of those stuck-up assholes leading the team, and we were going to have to deal with it.

A knock on my door caused me to look up as a voice spoke. "General Bryce, you available to talk?" That was Paul. Seemed like gods had good timing. I would fill him in on the upcoming inspection, and hopefully he could help the bots prepare for it.

"Yeah, come on in," I called to him. I continued once the god walked in, closing the door behind him. "I just finished a phone call with the higher-ups, and what I was told will make our situation difficult." His return frown told me he was tense about what I would say. Something told me he wouldn't be so calm once I told him.

Prowl's 1st P.O.V.

This was not looking to end well. While we have been moving forward without interference from MECH, their agents among us would see this inspection as an opening in our defenses and could strike out against us. Unfortunately, there was no way to get away from this matter. Honestly, we should be grateful to the Secretary of Defense for warning General Bryce of this change in our routine. From what Paul was told, the inspection had been put to the side for too long, thanks to their work with us in the past, for it to be waylaid any longer.

"You look nervous," I glanced up as Jazz walked into the warehouse, surprisingly followed by Soundwave. "We were just going to go over the updated protection details with you, but it looks like you have more on your processor." Jazz then stopped. "So, tell us what's on your processor mech."

I let out a vent as the thought of this inspection came to the forefront of my processor. "Paul just informed me of a conversation he had with General Bryce. It seems the base will be the focus of an inspection soon. We hope to have the exact date of the inspection before it is upon us. But, just in case we cannot, we will have to have a plan in place to deal with the unfamiliar faces that are about to be on the base. That will be both to deal with any MECH infiltrators that come with the group and to make sure that the five are not as exposed as they have to be. The less we can keep from MECH about their status, the better it will be for them once an attack is finally launched."

And that attack would come. We were not so foolish as to believe that MECH would take our rescuing of the five lightly. They would try and reclaim them. It was what we were training them for, to protect themselves when we could not be with them. While we were telling them that it would be useful for when, or if, they decided to leave this planet for the reaches of space, the most immediate use of that training would be against MECH and their agents. We had to make sure that they were ready.

"Why don't we use this inspection?" I glanced up at Soundwave as he spoke up. The mech, I was coming to find, had a strange take on what was happening around us that I wouldn't have normally considered.

That included whatever this suggestion might be. "What do you mean?" I asked him.

His screen lit up, showing the different squads under investigation along with the points of interest in the base's files that we were keeping our optics on. "MECH would be foolish not to use this change of schedule to their advantage. If we have the newsparks out with a guard, we could see if the fake falter in our security might lull one of the agents into acting rashly. The last agent we discovered tried to access information about Paul. We were able to stop her from gaining access, but that told us that Paul is still in their sights."

"With our guards down, we could find an agent who is much further up the chain of command than the ones we have captured so far." I saw where he was coming from with this plan and found myself approving it. However, there was one caveat that I was concerned about. "However, that would place the five at a greater risk than they already are. MECH could launch an attack, and we might be splitting our attentions too far to react in time to stop them completely." Given everything we had learned about what they had been put through, from files we were able to recover and from what the five had divulged, they had gone through much at the hands of MECH. It would not be right to put them at risk after all of that.

Jazz nodded. "True that." He then leaned back for a nano before he seemed to get an idea. "Let's ask them. I'm sure Lunarblaze would jump at the chance to fight MECH should they attack, and Freelancer would be in that same position."

"If they agree to help," Soundwave added. "We can make sure that they have two of us with them at all times. We can say we are training them to watch their surroundings, which would explain why there would be two of us with them."

Yes, this could work. Plus, for those who were far enough in their training, this was advanced training that they would appreciate. Being able to move seamlessly among beings the size of humans would be an advantage if they ever took to the stars. It wasn't necessary training since one would simply need to watch their step without it, but it would be advantageous for them to have this. "Very well," I looked at both of them. "Tell the trainers to ask the five if they want to participate. If they agree, then start gearing their lessons in that direction. The more natural this looks, the better MECH's agents will fall for it and hopefully relax."

However, as the two mechs left, I felt a cold chill race up my backplates. We were playing more into chance than I would have liked to with this mission, which left us open. If MECH was able to find out about what we planned, they could move against a target that we weren't prepared for them to. While we continued to mention the five most recent newsparks, they weren't the only ones at the base. Not only were they not the only ones, but if MECH was able to discover her original identity, then Pandimala would be in even more danger than the five of them.

Prometheus would see her as his perfect target. From what we discovered about the human, he saw Paul as his rival. More than that, he seemed to see Paul as his mortal enemy. Given how close Paul was with Pandimala, both now and when she was Lizzie Val, the man would target her. So far, our intel said she was being kept out of reports to MECH. Well, her identity as Lizzie was. Pandimala was brought up since she was one of the medics working on the five and had been on the infiltration mission to retrieve them.

Paul would also have to be watched. Since Prometheus did see the man as his enemy, then he might take the change here at the base to strike out against the man. As pointed out before, he was much more rash than his predecessor and might risk a direct attack on the base to take Paul out. I had read the files. Prometheus spared no expense in the past to try to eliminate the god. Poison, bombs, assassins, fragging snipers; anything you could think of to attack another human, this man had tried. There was even an anthrax outbreak at a building that Paul was supposed to visit. However, the god had to reschedule at the last minute and was not there.

All seven of them would have to be watched during this challenge. Each could be a target, and we had to be prepared for anything.

Fanzone's 1st P.O.V.

"You are a disgrace to this uniform soldier! Do you hear me?"

I was pretty sure that the whole state could hear that fucking moron yelling.

This damn inspection shouldn't even be happening right now. But, some bureaucrat higher in the chain of command thought we hadn't been inspected soon enough for their liking. So, they had to send in the IG team to fuck everything over. Sure, I wasn't too worried about us passing the exam. That was even with that fucking asshole of a major in command of the team. Everett Breed. We had gone through basic together way back when, and the fucker didn't hesitate to shoot up the ranks to make sure that he was in control. If he didn't give something the go-ahead, then all of basic got to hear about it.

And, of course, that put me at odds with the man despite his greater rank.

Why they thought that he should be running this inspection, I would never know. Maybe the idiot saw the chance to inspect a secret government base where I was stationed and jumped at the chance. He certainly sucked up to enough of command when I knew him that it was more than possible. Now, he was inspecting my team, and hell, was I proud of my guys. Despite their attitudes when around other people here at the base, they were standing at attention and not giving the man a real reason to ride their asses like he was doing now.

Masterson was a damn saint right now. I wouldn't have cared if it was a fucking general; if a man stood in my face like that yelling about shit that shouldn't be causing any damn problems, I would have been yelling right back in his face. Thankfully, Masterson was simply standing there, holding a long stare with the obviously enraged Breed. Honestly, Masterson's lack of reaction was probably getting under the bastard's skin more than any retaliation would have. Thank god Masterson didn't fit Breed's mold of a 'perfect soldier'.

All we had to do was keep our tongues bit until this asshole got tired of pontificating, then we were going to have to sit through this spiel.

"Why did we get stuck with fucking Breed?" Bryce whispered from next to me as he watched Breed tear into Masterson some more.

What the hell did that man have against Masterson? While my soldier wasn't Breed's image of a perfect soldier, he should have moved on by now. Trust me, damn Lincoln would be more than happy enough to give Breed back as much as he was getting.

To the General, however, "You know of him, sir?"

Bryce gave a slight nod. "Had the displeasure of standing through one of his inspections at my last base. Right before I got saddled with this lot, honestly. He had torn through all of my men like it was what kept him breathing. His damn tirade caused a new private to have a mental breakdown that ended in his medical discharge. I think that asshole gets a sick pleasure in breaking people." He then motioned to my men. "From the looks of it, he has Masterson in his sights."

I nodded. "Yes, sir. Thankfully, Masterson is used to dealing with the rest of my squad, and I'm sure that Breed is pissed that he can't get under his skin." However, this hyperfixation on Masterson was strange. Usually, Breed would have realized Masterson would not break and move on to the next target. As I had thought earlier, my squad had plenty for Breed to pick apart. Well, have more success with tearing apart.

"You know him too?" My eyes quickly flickered to the General as he spoke.

"Yes, sir. I went through basic with Breed. He just moved up the ranks higher than the rest of us did. Breed was as much of a pain in the ass back then as he is acting right now. And he would always go after the weak links. Well, when he wasn't sucking up to the higher-ups, that is." I then shook my head. "We've clashed a few times, and I think that is why he is fixating on my team."

"Shit," I was surprised Bryce let out the curse. "We have to make sure we make it through this inspection in the positive. The Secretary of Defense said that if we could pass this, he would make sure we got some more funding."

More funding. As shitty as this was right now, that money could and would be put to good use. Not only did we need more buildings for our robotic guests, but with them here, we also needed to expand space for human personnel. Given that this would be the bots' home base, we needed to create a way for all of us to move about each other without causing issues.

"What was that soldier?" My focus returned to my troops as Breed's voice took on a sharp tone. Instead of looking at Masterson, as I thought he would be, his gaze was moved over to Knight, much to my surprise. "I wasn't addressing you!"

Instead of flinching back at the tone, Knight locked eyes with the man. "When you address one of us, sir, you address all of us. We are all interchangeable cogs in the military's great machine, and I'll be damned if I let you keep spouting your bullshit for another god-damn second. The texture of Masterson's skin is not breaking any sort of military code, even if he was doing anything to it. I can assure you, sir, that he does nothing to it."

Before Breed, red face turning purple, could yell at Knight for his interruption, I felt a headache coming on as Lincoln spoke up. "And sir, you aren't Masterson's type."

"What was that, you pitiful excuse of a soldier?" Breed screamed into Lincoln's face.

A smirk flashed onto Corvus's face as he took a turn to speak up. "Lincoln said that you aren't Masterson's type, sir!"

I almost got whiplash from how fast Breed's head snapped to Corvus. The idiot moved to Corvus as the already inspected squads slipped some giggles through their lines. "Oh, and what type would that be, maggot?"

Breed had no idea what sort of monster he had unleashed. While my squad did a fairly good job tearing each other apart when they got a chance, they knew how to come together. They could destroy each other, but they better pray to whatever gods they believed in if someone outside our squad tried this. And, since I couldn't interfere with the inspection, I couldn't save the moron from the hell he just unleashed.

"I didn't realize you were that into our dear Masterson, sir." Corvus's grin seemed to dance with the glee of a million demons. "He's more into metal and gears than flesh and bone. Maybe you would be tolerable if you had a couple of prosthetics. I can help you with that should you ever need it."

That vein on Breed's forehead looked like it was about to burst. "Disrespect! In all my years, I've never met a squad filled with so much disrespect for their commanding officers." I felt a tick of protectiveness wash over me as he glanced at Hansen. "First Lieutenant Hansen, You seem to be unable to perform your job efficiently when it comes to your," Blood pulsed in my ears as he paused and gave a demeaning glance at my men, "Squad."

"Who crawled up your aft and died?"

We all jumped, and I felt my eyes widen as Lunarblaze started to walk over, Pandimala and Thundercracker behind her. While I could see a brief flash of worry cross Pandimala's optics, that was soon replaced by agreement with the femme.

Breed seemed almost to sneer as he glanced up at her. "This has nothing to do with you, robot. Keep walking and stay out of human business."

If that man ended up dead after all of this, I would not lose any sleep at night.

"First of all, glitch, I used to be human. But, even if I hadn't, I could hear you ranting for the last ten minutes at Masterson. And he isn't even doing anything wrong. So, get your fat head out of your aft and act like a fragging professional." Lunarblaze then flipped the man off.

"How dare you speak to me like that?" This was not going to end well. As Pandimala started to pull Lunarblaze away, Breed stepped forward. "Not when all of this is because of your lot." I felt tense and glanced at Pandimala as Breed said that. She had been blaming herself for what had transpired since they all left the planet. While I hoped the talk I helped her bondmate with the other day helped the femme, I couldn't be sure. She wasn't exactly broadcasting her feelings to everyone here at base. "Thanks to you all; we have to clean up your mess with MECH."

The air grew heavy as I watched the femme. This was it. Hopefully, they could keep themselves composed. It was one thing to have one of the newsparks say that to her, given the trauma that they all went through. Having Breed doing the most idiotic thing he has ever done in his career was about to make or break all the hard work we had been doing here.

"I'm not sure who you are, sir, but MECH was a problem that your government was dealing with long before we ended up on your planet. We are here to help fight against MECH, but don't you dare say we are solely responsible for their existence." Go femme! I was glad that she was finally standing up for herself.

Also, the look on Thundercracker's faceplate told me that Breed was lucky that the femme was confronting him and not the others.

The idiot glared at the femme, and she returned the glare before he spoke. "I am Major Everett Breed, visitor, and those are some pretty big words for a being covered in armor-plating."

I could feel the anger emanating in the air, and it wasn't coming from Thundercracker, Lunarblaze, or Pandimala. Turning, I felt my eyes widen when I saw Knockout, the snake bot called Cohrada, and Paul walking up to us. Given Prometheus's past with Paul, they felt like the god should also have a guard. All three of them could be the source of this anger. However, I was putting my money on her bondmate. He'd be getting more of her reaction than the others, and she looked angry.

"Strong words coming from someone who lost track of enemy number one," Paul, who spoke, marched right up to the Major. "Stop blaming us and focus on hunting MECH down and wiping them out. That is the most important thing we can do right now." The god was right. Despite our pasts, we needed to come together if we were going to defeat MECH. And, despite how much of a fucking asshole the man was, Breed was no traitor to this country. Scum? Yes. But Everett Breed could never be called a traitor.

Everett glared at Paul. "Right, the real problem." To my surprise, he then shot a glare at Masterson. "I assure you that we are working on every viable angle." The man then took a glance at Paul, who hadn't let up his glare, before he glanced at General Bryce. "General, I recommend you remind certain soldiers how to address their superiors properly."

The area stayed quiet as the man walked off. After about five minutes, Bryce's walkie crackled to life. "General Bryce, sir, this is Elsie Presser. Major Breed's team has left the base. Returning to our regular operating security."

"Thank you, Presser," Bryce responded.

Immediately, I felt relief as those words hit my ears. That man always put me on edge. "That guy was a pain in the aft." We all laughed as Lunarblaze huffed that, her servos crossed in front of her.

But, as everyone moved apart, I allowed my gaze to rest on Masterson. We had cleared him in the matter with MECH, and he was a member of my squad, so I wasn't worried about him. But, from what I saw, Breed seemed to have a deeply rooted reason for going after the man. I didn't even know that they knew each other. While I was not going to dig into the man's past, I was curious how they crossed paths.

"'Mala? You in there?"

I came out of my thoughts as Lunarblaze seemed to snap Pandimala out of her thoughts. "Yeah, just distracted. Something that, for now, you can't afford to be. Moving among smaller beings can be dangerous if you aren't aware of your surroundings."

As Thundercracker picked back up on the lesson they were doing with the femme, I shot one more glance at Masterson. Given everything that was happening, I needed to talk to the man. My squad's pasts were their own, but Breed was smart. He knew that to cause me the most trouble, he would have to use actual incidents to undermine me. I'd see if Masterson would tell me how they crossed paths. That had been a witch-hunt, and to protect my squad, I needed to know what reason Breed had for going after him.

Pandimala: *nervous* I don't like the look of this. You are setting things up.

Authoress: *nods* Of course I am. However, who said it won't be for a benefit?

Pandimala: *deadpans* Because you haven't a lot of trouble, all things considered.

Authoress: *smiles widely* You know me so well.

AN: And here is the next chapter! I hope you all enjoyed it. And yes, I am on vacation, so I am hoping to have a little more time to work on catching this story up. I'll admit that my thoughts have been drifting to the next two stories in this series, and that is dangerous when I am still working on updating this one along with Valor of One and Awakening Power. But they are going to have interesting plots. So, guilty.

Speaking of interesting plots, it seems that things at the base are starting to stir. While Fanzone's team has been cleared for the MECH situation, that doesn't mean they don't have their pasts. And it seems as if Major Everett Breed knows something about Masterson.

At least Pandimala is letting her guilt take a sideline, at the very least. Not letting Breed get under her plating is going to go far.

As you all might suspect, the next chapter is going to get hectic. MECH will come back into focus, and the story will start unfolding rather quickly after this.

Until then, though, here are the names of the next chapters!

Chapter 10: Resurgence

Chapter 11: Consequential Enmity

Chapter 12: ...(see you next time!)

That is all for now! Thank you all again for the interactions you make with my story. I truly appreciate everything! Until next time, TTYL! *Immersing myself in Against the Tide by Sail North*