Full Velocity: Apocalypse Code
Chapter 15: Upping the Ante
XxxX
Soundwave had reduced Alpha Base to a maze of trenches, everything they worked to build destroyed or covered beneath a pile of rocks and rubble. Excavating went slowly, hampered by the need to salvage anything still useful or stopped by the remains of a human - a deceased friend, requiring identification and burial in the nearby graveyard, the only new thing they had built on this land.
Focusing on high-priority areas, the Autobots made slow but steady progress. First, they located and extracted the energon refinement equipment; even though the Parhelion could supply Autobots fuel for the foreseeable future, an earth-bound synthesis system protected against starvation and provided an alternate fuel source for Indian Springs.
Next, they pulled Teletraan from the ruins, secured and transported the AI to the Parhelion, hoping Preceptor and his team could awaken the program or, at the very least, access the memory core and transfer the raw data to a new AI. Losing that information would set the Autobots back dozens of vorns.
As the sun began its climb in the sky, Ratchet stole the team charged with unearthing Ironhide's armory and bullied them until they agreed to his change of plans.
"Grapple, I don't care what you think you see. You must remove the façade to expose the door," Ratchet snapped, squatting on his perch at the lip of the demolished labyrinth.
Grapple and Hoist shared an annoyed look. Changing tools, they began the careful removal of the composite material that lined the walls of the former base. Experience taught them to go slow, look for any signs of instability, or dig themselves out of a mini avalanche. This tediousness irritated Ratchet; he wanted the vault open and the pods removed immediately to avoid a nosy Ultra Magnus, his inevitable questions, and insufferable outrage.
The two mechs chipped away the brittle white material, and dirt tumbled from the hole.
"Further to the right," yelled the CMO, not caring that a support beam blocked everything in that direction.
Grapple and Hoist set about removing the beam and the tons of rocks until they could move further down the hallway. Ratchet let them work and tried to find the exact location of the vault. Weeks ago, he realized that walking the corridors was a vastly different perspective than looking at the destruction from above; more than once, he had miscalculated. Standing and turning in a circle, he visually tracked the path from his former infirmary to the vault; this had to be the right spot. Glancing up from the canyon of mazes, a plume of dust announced another Autobot's arrival. The CMO groaned at the white and blue cab-over semi heading in his direction.
"Frag," he mumbled; louder, he ordered the mechs, "Take a break."
"No," shouted Hoist.
Ratchet turned back to the duo conscripted for this task. "I said, take a break."
Hoist continued to clear the debris away as Grapple carefully chipped a line of holes in the wall to determine what lay behind.
"Are you incapable of following directions?" Ratchet yelled, glancing behind to see Ultra Magnus transform to his root mode.
Grapple never paused, his tools chiseling a row of holes. "We aren't stopping. The faster we find what you are looking for, the faster you are off our afts." The next strike of hammer against chisel rang out, nothing like the dull thuds of before.
Ratchet glanced over his shoulder; Ultra Magnus wove and jumped toward them, keeping to the wider, more stable sections of earth between the collapsed tunnels. "Please, stop," the medic begged, "Just take a break." He rubbed his helm with his hand.
The team in the ditch continued to work. The noise of tumbling rubble and falling façade echoed in the medic's audios. It was not a death bell, but it sounded like a long argument of righteous, inflexible indignation versus questionable acts for the greater good.
Ultra Magnus lept onto the mini mesa between the trenches; his weight shook the ground, and rocks tumbled downward. Ratchet began to reassess the stability of his perch.
"Ratchet," the mech tipped his helm in respect, "I am curious as to what is so important that you altered the excavation schedule?"
The CMO glared at the General, trying to decide whether to use the truth or deflect with a lie. He chose both. "I have a stash of contraband, and I need it removed before a nosy Autobot General finds out and tries to arrest me on some vague law, which only he remembers." Ratchet watched the team below remove the last pieces of composite façade hiding the door.
"That is a vault," Magnus stated, staring at the Prime's glyph carved into the door's surface. "I was not informed the Prime had a vault on Earth. Primary recovery efforts should have focused on this."
Hopping into the corridor's collapsed roof and then jumping into the cleared stretch, Ratchet walked toward the door. "This isn't a Primacy Vault. Just a storeroom Optimus kept for items he didn't want cluttering his quarters." The CMO began carefully dismantling the lock plate. "But before he left, Optimus mentioned he would like some of his belongings, so I decided to retrieve the stasis pods holding personal items myself before they were lost or damaged. Had these been important, this would have been the first area we excavated."
"You still need us?" asked Hoist, kicking debris beneath his peds.
"Yes," grumbled Ratchet, digging past the useless wires, his fingers sought the locking mechanisms.
A thud announced Ultra Magnus landing nearby. "I will assist in retrieving the stasis pods; they are heavy. Grapple, find the rest of the excavation team; the more assisting, the less likely we are to damage the pods." A small smile brightened his features.
Ratchet froze; cold fear slid along his lines as he lost his grip on the tumbler buried in the door. Magnus was not assisting because of the goodness of his spark. He chose to help because he saw through the lies and misdirection. He wanted to know what the pods held, and the CMO did not look forward to explaining the existence of two sparkless protoforms.
XxxX
The horses clopped along Colorado Avenue with a soothing cadence. Around them, buildings reached skyward, their windows shining in the afternoon sun. A small search team of four, two humans and two Autobots - maybe a team of six if one counted the horses, moved quickly toward their goal. Cliffjumper should have been part of the group but still struggled to stand up from the previous night's festivities. They worked their way through the downtown business district, with only pigeons, greasy rats, and feral cats as residences.
"We have to have help from one of the Bots to find the edge of the Dead Field and mark it on a map," Harith explained, reigns loose in his hands; apparently, his compact little dun knew where they were headed and plodded forward unbothered by the femme walking next to him. "Then we move several streets over and mark the boundary again. Wash and repeat until we get a decent idea of the boundary edge. Some geometry and we can roughly plot a disruptor's location, assuming it follows the Ten Mile Rule."
Impressed, Velocity wondered if they could kidnap the young man and use him in Nevada. "What do you do in the military?" she asked.
Harith chuckled, "I'm not military. I was at U. C. Boulder, studying mathematics and engineering. I came home for a few days because we had to put my dog down, and the wave hit. After that, I spent my days helping anyone I could, and then Hound found me. I've been assisting with clearing the disruptors ever since."
"I'm sorry about your dog." Velocity meant it; she had always wanted a dog and envied the relationship between humans and their canines, a closeness between species that could reach mystical levels.
With a wave of the hand, Harith dismissed her concerns. "It's fine, he was eighteen. Boomer was a gift for my second birthday. Mom says he hung on so we could all be together and at home when this," he gestured vaguely, encompassing everything around them, "happened. He died on his own that night. By helping the Autobots, we get an abandoned house near NORAD, regular food rations, and medical care. We are doing fine, unlike some."
Looking around, Velocity noticed shattered windows glittering in the streets but not the extensive damage in Las Vegas. "Where is everyone?"
Behind her, Lori called out, "Most are in the shelters; some choose to stay in their homes, but we have no way to tell who is gone."
Ignoring the implications and multiple meanings of the word "gone," Velocity asked, "Shelters?" and glanced at Hound; the Autobot smirked at her. He knew she was on a fact-finding mission as much as a lets-destroy-a-disruptor-and-piss-off-Soundwave mission.
The dark-haired woman trotted her appaloosa until she rode beside Harith. "After a few days, the city opened shelters following their emergency plans. Most of them are in schools, but as time passed, people set up camps near the hospitals and parks."
"Is it working?" Velocity wondered. "Are the people surviving - doing well, getting enough food and medical care."
The woman barked a bitter laugh, and her mount flicked its ears. "Working? Hardly. The people are slowly starving. Fights and riots break out when someone has extra food or water. The shelters stink of pee, poo, and rotten food. Every week, the mass grave is a little fuller." A scowl darkened Lori's face, her eyes focusing on something far away and horrible.
Velocity dropped the discussion; it had already sunk in her soul like a boulder, falling fast and crushing what lay beneath it. She could not help these people immediately, but eventually, Optimus and the Autobots would stop the disruptors, and then people could go on with their lives.
"Here we are," announced Hound, cutting through her thoughts.
The small group stopped at an intersection, everyone but the femme staring at a tall building. Velocity turned in a circle and admired the view of the mountains in the distance. Hound tapped her shoulder and pointed to the fourteen-story building before them.
"We are searching that?" the femme scoffed. "We have what, five hours of light left? It would take days to go through that building.
"No, it won't." Harith dismounted and tied his horse to the nearby stop sign. He pulled a spray can from his saddle bag. Shaking the can as he walked to the front of the building, the young man shouted over his shoulder, "We only have to search the outside and parking garage." Then he sprayed a red, drippy diagonal line across the front of the main door.
Hound addressed her and the group. "You know the drill: look for fresh concrete, large ventilation covers, dirt, piles of junk, anything an average-sized mech could access quickly and shove a human-sized disruptor into. Velocity, you and I will start at the top of the building. Ready to try your climbing skills?"
The wicked snik of the femme's claws springing from their sheaths startled the humans. "Race you to the top," she smiled.
XxxX
Optimus stood at the juncture, cold stone pressed against his back. Corridors spread around him, but only a handful offered enough room for mechs to move freely; most contained human-sized buildings, all craftily sitting on massive springs to negate seismic tremors. As he waited, he thought about bringing Ironhide here to show him the construction of the underground fortress; humans had eons of experience digging beneath the surface, whereas Cybertronians only built on top of the old.
Hiding in the shadows, he could have been a statue except for the occasional blink of optic shutters and slow cycle of vents. He knew the one he sought would eventually come this way to leave or enter the complex.
The rhythmic thump of peds on the rocky floor announced his quarry's presence. Except for lifting his helm toward the sound, the Prime remained rooted to the wall, his arms folded over his chest, and his weight on one leg, the other bent at the knee with ped anchored to the surface behind him.
It took only a second for the mech to appear, apparently deep in his thoughts and ignoring all around him.
"Mirage." Optimus rumbled the name with the purr of his diesel engine but otherwise remained still.
The sphinxlike head of the spy snapped up, and his optics searched the darkness before landing on Optimus's optical glow. "My Prime," he bowed to show fidelity and respect, a gesture that nearly tempted a sneer from the Autobot Commander; recent behaviors made the gesture meaningless. "How may I serve you?" Mirage purred; they both knew Velocity left with Hound.
"You can serve me by stopping your bullshit." The last word accidentally slipped out; his mate's use of colorful human expletives had begun rubbing off on him.
Optics opened wide with surprise, and Mirage took a small step backward. "Sir?"
Pushing off the wall, Optimus stepped forward, pointing at the spy with two fingers. "This ends now. A smarter mech would have learned from the last incident to leave her alone, but you did not. So now, I will intervene.
"Velocity is my mate, and you will stop harassing her. You will stop with the snide comments. You will stop with the looks and barely concealed insults. I rescued your aft from her anger; I will not do so again."
Mirage stared at him; a hurricane of emotions swirled behind his optics, but his electrical field shrank, pulling away. Optimus pressed his field into the subordinate mech, showing power, dominance, and an unspoken threat. "Get over it." Turning, Optimus left the mech and headed to help reload the trailers.
XxxX
"So, you can eat gasoline." The woman trotted beside Wheeljack as he carried a box from one semi-trailer to another.
"Drink, but yes. Cybertronians, like humans, can consume various substances as fuel. And like humans, we have an optimal diet to ensure the best health." The scientist dropped his box and shoved it into its place. Turning, he walked back to the pile of items to reload.
"Best health? You are a robot - sorry, um, cybernetic lifeform. How do you have health issues." Susan asked, stopping to catch her breath.
Airman Jackson frowned. This other woman spent all of her time asking questions to any Autobot that would answer them. Cory agreed with Sideswipe's comment of "frag off" when Susan turned her constant queries on him.
Wheeljack chuckled warmly. "Of course, we have health issues. We are a lifeform, and like all life forms, some diseases target us; extreme viruses try to hijack our frames to reproduce, just like the flu reproduces in humans. If we consume substances like gasoline for too long, the impurities clog the filtration process and block absorption, causing what amounts to nutritional deficiencies."
"Or, if you're really old like Huffer, you must have a specially enriched energon because you can't absorb metals from eating them." Sideswipe ducked a sloppy punch from the aforementioned Autobot.
"Mute your vocals before I slag your aft and turn you into a receptacle for Shockwave's…."
"Primus stop. The insult is already too long," Sideswipe chuckled as he walked away from the older mech and lifted a box to help load the trailer.
Huffing and pouting, Huffer followed the red mech's example, and Airman Jackson realized where the big Autobot probably got his name.
"You eat metal?" Susan continued questioning as if two Autobots hadn't almost come to blows.
"Of course, we eat bits of metal. You eat protein to supply your body with amino acids; we do the same with some rarer metals we need." Wheeljack continued his anatomy lecture.
Cory listened as she checked through the supplies staying at NORAD. She found the information about Cybertronians fascinating, but she didn't like how Susan had shoved herself in and grabbed Jack's attention. Jealousy reared its serpentine head; she thought of Wheeljack as her Autobot and didn't like another woman asking him so many deep and sometimes personal questions.
"Hey, Jack. Don't forget, we have to," Cory tried to think of something for them to do. "Um, calibrate the air circulators." She could have smacked herself in the forehead. They had nothing to do with maintaining NORAD.
Wheeljack scratched his helm and shrugged before picking up another box. "Cory, I wouldn't remember refueling or recharging without you. We can calibrate the circulators as soon as we finish here."
Heavy ped falls announced the arrival of Optimus Prime. Cory hastily moved out of the way. She didn't fear the Autobot leader, but he was so much bigger than the others and more stoic, more formidable, more - everything. Honestly, she didn't know enough about the Prime to decide one way or another. Wheeljack and Hound respected him, so she took her cues from them and defaulted to treating Optimus like any other ranking officer.
As Optimus Prime began assisting in reloading the trailers, the slew of questions from Susan rapidly ended. If the Prime's presence could shut that woman up, Airman Jackson decided she liked him.
"When will Hound and Velocity return?" the Prime asked as he lifted a large crate.
A chuckle lit up the lights on Wheeljack's head. "They are fine. The area they are searching is mostly deserted. There is no need to worry about V; she is safe."
A grunt became the Autobot leader's only response.
XxxX
Harith used his compass to draw another perfect circle on Velocity's map as she watched him intently.
"Were you successful?" The words rolled over the granite and down the corridor.
Velocity glanced toward her mate, the glowing orbs cutting deep shadows behind the angles of his armor. "Nope," she sighed. "But I did learn a lot. We don't have to go through the interior of most buildings, just the exterior. That will make urban searches faster."
Optimus appeared to consider the information. "That makes sense. There is no need to look in a bathroom when none of our kind need to go into one." A glimmer of humor twinkled in his optics.
Not to be outdone and wanting to annoy her mate, Velocity clutched a wad of new markers and pens, holding up for Optimus to see. "Look what I liberated, and they all say United States Airforce."
Ignoring their banter, Harith interjected, "Do you think this will help? I don't mind, and if you think it could help…" His hands nimbly marked areas of the paper in different colors of ink, doodling boundaries with double lines or layers of curly Qs.
"This will greatly aid us. Once Wheeljack sends a digital copy to Perceptor, we can plot the general locations of all disruptors." A rare smile beamed from the Prime. "We will utilize Velocity's copy as we move East by making additions to it."
Velocity couldn't help but return her mate's smile. "I love this, advanced aliens using annotated maps. Harith, can you draw a weird little monk on the edge of the page, like they have in old, illuminated Bibles."
A look of disgust rolled over the young man. "I'm Muslim. Why would I draw weird, little, medieval Bible monks?"
Picking up the last marker, Velocity dropped it into a tiny pouch and zipped it up. Harith folded the maps and handed them to her, and she stuck everything into a compartment on her side.
Optimus slid back into his "serious Prime" persona as Velocity started to think of it. "In the morning, we leave as soon as possible. Longhaul and Huffer are double-checking the trailers. Wheeljack said the parts we brought should be sufficient to modify the existing arrays, and the converted generators can start supplying electricity to the Cheyenne Mountain Facility. As Hound and his team clear more disruptors, they will open the landing strip to run the shuttle between the Parhelion, Indian Springs, and Colorado Springs.
Turning his focus to the man at his peds, Optimus said, "Harith Hamid, it is an honor to know you. Your assistance is highly valued and deeply appreciated."
Velocity smiled as the young man's bronze skin deepened in a blush.
XxxX
Overhead, thin clouds danced across the moon as if afraid to block her glowing grandeur. Around them, Wheeljack's cold chemistry orbs offered enough light for the humans to see but left deep shadows where their illumination could not reach. Autobots and Humans had reveled in comradery, deepening alliances through easy conversation and fellowship. They shared stories and drank for those they lost. Even the Base Commander graced them with his presence, popping the tab on a beer and smiling at a couple of jokes. The parking area hosted gaggles of people, primarily military and towering Autobots. Some mechs kept to the side, but those more accustomed to watching for humans under their peds joined the crowds. Velocity ignored Mirage's presence, and he acted like she didn't exist; she could accept that arrangement. An old crank-style gramophone offered scratchy and warbled music, and a few couples danced to dusty songs. Velocity enjoyed the night, listening to laughter and watching the stars twinkle overhead. For a few hours, she forgot the misery of the world.
Optimus stared at his antagonist, his expression stony, not giving anything away as he weighed his options. Finally, he opened a storage compartment on his side and removed an object carefully concealed by his hand. With his fist hovering above the ground, the Prime carefully deposited the object on the ever-growing pile before him.
All optics widened, and Sideswipe let out a small whistle.
"What is that?" Velocity asked as the oblong stone shimmered in the moonlight; its iridescent glow illuminated the objects around it.
"Oh," Wheeljack offered appreciatively. That is a cloud stone. A super planet's gravity creates cloud stones as it compresses gases into a solid, skipping the liquid phase. Over time, the..."
"Mute the science lesson 'Jack." Sideswipe laid his cards face down and scooped the remains of his assorted items. "Too rich for me; I should have learned vorns ago not to play poker with a Prime." Hound silently followed the red mech's lead.
Only Optimus and Airman Jackson remained. They sat on the concrete, each holding their cards close to their chest and weighing their odds. Velocity had wholly opted out of the evening's poker session, not wanting to lose her new pens. She also refused any of Sideswipe's laced energon, wishing to remain clear-headed for the trip in the morning. Optimus had accepted both with gusto and requested his "lady" stay at his side for luck. Now, she lay on her side next to her mate, her head propped by her hand, her body wrapped around the Prime as he sat cross-legged, staring at his cards.
"Is that rock really from another planet?" Cory asked, looking over her cards, the curiosity etched on her dark features.
"It is," mumbled Optimus, "And that planet is in a different star system on a different spiral arm of the galaxy." He continued to scrutinize the tiny cards in his hand.
"You've been holding out on me," teased Velocity. She wanted to pick up the rock and look it over. Could it be cut and polished, then mounted as a ring or a pendant? The amount of money such a piece of jewelry would fetch at auction would have set her up for life - her former life. She didn't need the money anymore but still wanted the pretty stone.
"Primus V, just swap some paint with the Big Bot, and he will probably give it to you as a Christmas gift," groused Sideswipe. "Ouch," he mumbled as Hound thumped him on the head.
"That would make me a prostitute," Velocity retorted. "Optimus can keep his rocks."
Her mate's sidelong glance sent a pleasant tingle across her more delicate circuits. "I have two more cloud stones," he purred softly. "There's no need to wait until Christmas."
"Oh, for fucks sake, I'm gonna be sick." Sideswipe wandered away from the group and toward the dark tunnels of NORAD.
Finally, Airman Jackson shoved her remaining mishmash of pinecones, seashells, little toy cars, and unidentified objects forward. "Show me what you got, big man." The woman laid down three jacks, a four, and a seven.
Velocity glanced at the Prime's hand; he held three queens and two sixes.
The Prime sadly sighed and folded his cards. "You win," he admitted and offered Velocity a wink.
At that moment, she could not have loved him more.
XxxX