Disclaimer: I only own my OCs. Vox belongs to a friend.
Pandimala: *relaxed* This is it. The end of your first act, and we are free from MECH.
Authoress: *nods* Yes, and I hope you all enjoy it as much as possible.
Knockout: *suspicious* Why?
Authoress: *raises eyebrow* This is you lot we are talking about. Something is bound to happen sooner rather than later.
Chapter 20: What Might Have Been
General Bryce's 1st P.O.V.
Even though MECH was thoroughly eliminated, they were still causing me headaches. Washington was still hounding me about getting them the incident reports from the unexpected annihilation raid on MECH's actual headquarters. Of course, this would be a hundred times easier if the fucking god on base had given me a heads-up about his little raid group!
But no. He just appropriated government assets on a damn whim and launched his attack. Now, here I was, cleaning up this mess. I owed Freelancer an apology for everything I gave him grief for when he was watching the bots. And he had to deal with much more than I did so far.
Glancing at the report in front of me, I felt my headache growing. The investigations after the battle brought up the disappearance of MECH's lead researcher and scientist, Doctor Arkeville. At first, we were all worried. The man was the driving force behind the torture that turned the five, and we could not allow him to escape. We'd use every resource at our disposal to hunt the man down. Outside of Prometheus, whose body we had in our custody, that man was the most dangerous member of MECH. Not knowing where he was could have brought them back. Thankfully, or not so much depending on how I looked at it, Paul asked me for a private meeting with Knockout to…discuss, the doctor's fate.
Needless to say, the man was good and dead.
The problem I was having now was the report I was supposed to send to the higher-ups about his death. I knew what happened. Knockout, wanting to return to his bondmate's side, hadn't spared me any details to avoid being pulled away from her again. The therapists assigned to the base were going to make a fortune just on my visits alone. There were some injuries I didn't need to know we could survive.
And it was how that fragging mech killed the doctor that was causing me to struggle with this report. I needed to word the report just right to make sure I stayed honest while avoiding getting the ICC involved. Just the light methods Knockout used would have the International Criminal Court in a frenzy. While Geneva didn't technically include aliens who had not agreed to those conventions, the United States of America might receive some backlash if this report caused an investigation.
Given what our initial findings showed the man did to the original five and Pandimala herself, I couldn't blame the red medic for his action. It just made these reports such a pain in my ass.
A knock caused me to look away from the dreaded report. "Come in." To my surprise, Fanzone walked into the room before shutting the door behind him. "What can I do for you, Fanzone?"
The man shook his head before sitting in the chair across from me. "I need a break from the after-action reports I'm still working on, and I figured you could use the same break."
Since the man was partly responsible for the sheer amount of paperwork in front of me, he could help distract me from it. "I think I'll take you up on that offer. I just got to the report I have to do on Doctor Arkeville's demise, and I think I need a clear head when working on it."
"I bet." He then shook his head. "Still, I can't believe all that happened three weeks ago."
The whirlwind that sudden raid caused the base had thrown everything into chaos. Once everything was said and done, that chaos increased as the injured were transported back to the base. "Team Lambda is all on medical leave for another four months, minimum, three members of Team Kappa sustained injuries that will take months to heal, though they aren't on leave like the others. All the other teams suffered minimal injuries, though Masterson took a nasty hit to the face from what I saw."
Fanzone nodded. "He's working through it, but that bullet grazed the side of his head. I doubt I'd have been that calm if I were him. We are lucky we didn't have any fatalities, despite the secretiveness of the start of the raid."
"We were close, though," I reminded the man. "Arzen and Pandimala both were in critical states upon their return to the base, let alone how they were found. From the reports I got, Pandimala was unconscious for a week while Arzen was out for two. That first week, though, was terrifying at times. If anyone even looked at Pandimala the wrong way, Knockout was ready to tear them apart.
And given how we found Arkeville's remains, we were very lucky the others had a bot watching him. Corvus decided to visit and was teasing Knight about dissections, which set Knockout off faster than anyone saw coming. If Blitzwing hadn't come by at that moment, Corvus might have ceased to exist in those seconds. Needless to say, the mech wasn't bothered again. Corvus made enough people nervous, and for someone to make him nervous, even a bot, was enough to tell others to give the mech some space.
"Not to mention how Soundwave was practically welded to Arzen's side until he woke. I think that was the first time I thought Pandimala and Soundwave would end up fighting." I had almost forgotten about that incident. It was no secret that the femme had been taking on a heavy burden when it came to the young mech. However, Soundwave seemed to have picked up some of that responsibility, and Pandimala, still in recovery herself, had not wanted to share.
"And I think we should move away from that topic," Fanzone looked nervous talking about it, and I didn't blame him. His squad had been close to Pandimala and were still navigating a metaphorical minefield when it came to her. "Do you know if there are any plans to bolster our numbers?"
Giving the man a nod, I pulled out a separate folder. Inside were the names of candidates that we were looking at to transfer to Unit E. "Not terribly. There are a few hopefuls, and I think some of these can fill in the vacant positions on the other squads."
It still shook me just how deep MECH had been able to infiltrate our forces. As angry as I was that Paul pulled what he did, I couldn't blame him for it. Given how that last raid had gone, ending up with Pandimala's capture in the first place, then his secrecy about the mission was more than understandable. Hell, I would probably have been more worried if he hadn't done something behind my back.
Hindsight was twenty-twenty, and it was a lesson I had to relearn all the time.
"So, what's next on the life-changing docket that is our everyday lives?"
Smirking, I shook my head. "Well, from conversations I've had with Paul, it would seem our next greatest threat is going to most likely come from Cybertron. Or, at the very least, a threat that they will send. That new armor Paul has been wearing will be available for all squads, and I know his company is working on producing enough for the base. I want us to be even more prepared for whatever we have to fight from Cybertron than we think we need to be."
Fanzone seemed to agree. "If all of this chaos has taught me one thing, it is that we are never going to be fully prepared for what they are going to bring." The man then stood before turning to the door. "I promised Lennox that I'd check in on him and his squad. See how their after-actions were coming. I'll let you get back to your paperwork."
As the man shut the door behind him, I glanced down at the damn report I was avoiding and let out a groan. This was going to be a long day.
Masterson's 1st P.O.V.
"Femme, keep your fragging arms up!" I glanced at the cop cruiser Decepticon as he yelled that at Lunarblaze.
Without the threat of MECH looming over our heads, all of the healthy bots had seemingly picked up training routines. The raid had shown the bots how Lunarblaze and Arzen would hold up in combat situations, and while I thought they did alright, it seemed that their trainers thought otherwise. Lafayette had talked to me earlier, when I had been coming here to watch this, and said he had been able to catch a glance at Arzen's training. Despite the recovery the young mech was going through, it seemed like Soundwave and Skywarp were pushing the mech even more than they were before.
I winced as a jolt of pain travelled from the newest scar on my face. During the raid, I had been trying to change positions to help better cover the bots near me when one of MECH's tower defenders was able to get a hit on me. While I wasn't sure if 'life flashing before my eyes' was quite how I would describe what happened, I had been in shock for a while. Claire Keller, who was Team Lambda's medic, had thankfully gotten to me fairly quickly. Otherwise, I was sure the damage would have been a lot worse.
All things considered, that raid could have turned out a lot worse. We had taken a lot of chances. But, I don't think I could regret it even if I wanted to. Everyone knew what mess we were getting into, and we were ready to risk everything to make sure MECH was taken down and save Pandimala.
"Slag it, Lu, he said, keep your slagging arms up!" I was surprised to hear Thundercracker yell that at the femme. He had been the quieter one as of late, observing what was happening and letting the others do the talking.
His yell brought me back to my thoughts. With MECH gone, the next enemies they should be worried about, from what we all understood, were the bots from Cybertron. With all of the craziness that had happened over the days since their arrival, it was sometimes easy to forget that almost all of them were fugitives, and those few that weren't right now would more than likely be made fugitives once Cybertron discovered their cooperation with the bots here.
Having now met Paul and talked with him, it was hard to understand why Cybertron decided it was a good idea to lock up the god in the first place. Having him moving among us, helping with problems proactively, and being a regular part of the base, let us treat him like any other person. More often than not, I found myself forgetting he was a god. To me, he was just Paul.
A loud bang pulled me out of my thoughts. Lunarblaze was laid out, cycling her vents like her spark depended on it. Barricade had his arms crossed and, at first, he looked upset. But, on second glance, there was a slight smirk on his faceplate. "And what did we learn?"
It took the femme a few more seconds to reply. "Keep…keep my arms up."
That caused the mech to shake his helm. "Come on," he reached down and helped her to her pedes. "Let's take a walk to cool down your systems."
"I've got another round in me."
"If I let you go right now, would you stay on your pedes?"
"...No."
This time, Barricade's smirk was very noticeable. "Then we are taking a walk." The femme pouted, but she didn't argue as Barricade walked her away.
"You look like you want to talk." I glanced up and focused on Thudercracker as he stopped next to me. "What's on your mind?"
Taking a quick glance in the direction the other two walked away in, I nodded. "Why are you all pushing them so hard? I know you all recover quickly, but it has only been a few weeks since the raid. Arzen and Lunarblaze took a lot of damage, but you all are pushing them like the world is going to end. Knight was telling me earlier that Soundwave and Skywarp have been pushing Arzen just as hard as you two seem to be pushing Lunarblaze. Isn't that rough on their systems?"
Thundercracker looked conflicted for a few moments before he let out a vent. "We are going hard on them because they asked us to. While we have increased training for all of them, Arzen and Lu insisted that we push them even further. With the threat of MECH gone, larger threats will eventually show up, and at least one we weren't preparing for until now. They will need every advantage we can give them to survive in our world. While you all shouldn't have just charged in like that, especially with those two, it did give us an unbiased view on what we need to work on with them."
"Was it that bad?" I thought they had done alright in the raid. But from how Thundercracker was talking, the bots didn't think so.
He shook his helm before sitting down next to me. "Don't get me wrong, they didn't do bad. To fight a being with military training was a feat Lu should be proud of. And I'm not going to even get into how impressive it was for Arzen to go pede to pede with a triple changer, even one that was being controlled. However, those fights showed that we were taking it too easy on them before. Our enemies could appear at any nano, and we want those five to be as ready as possible. The more they cooperate, the more training we can give them so they are ready."
From the exasperation behind his tone, I had a feeling that the one mech who was giving them trouble was still at it. "Romanus throwing his normal tantrums?"
The vent that escaped Thundercracker almost knocked me over. "Springer is done with the mech. When we got back from the raid with you all, the mech started ranting about how it wasn't fair that the other two were allowed to go and he was left behind. Said something about us showing favoritism to them because they were working with Decepticons and he wasn't."
That mech had to have a bolt loose somewhere. "If that were the case, we would have taken Freelancer and Morphia too. And you all didn't even organize the raid. That was Paul, and he doesn't have that kind of bias. If you all had organized the raid, Lunarblaze and Arzen wouldn't have gone." The bots were mad enough when we got back with the two, even with Arzen unconscious. Honestly, the mech probably wasn't asked to come because we couldn't trust him.
It felt weird even thinking that, but that was what the situation had come to. With the number of times Romanus had disobeyed his trainers' orders, interfering in other training sessions as he saw fit, it was honestly to be expected. Paul couldn't have a bot like that with us on that raid.
Even since then, the mech had jumped into one of Lunzarblaze's first training sessions when Scavenger was working with the femme, along with Wheeljack. From what the rumors were saying, the femme had forcefully introduced him to the tarmac.
Multiple times.
"It would have been a disaster if that mech had gone," Thundercracker agreed. "Between his attitude and Knockout's anger at the time, Romanus might not have survived the trip there. Knockout might be smaller than the mech, but the medic worked on some of the strongest and meanest bots the Pits of Kaon could spit out. It's easy to forget that when you see him with Pandimala, but I was reminded when she was gone. And now, with MECH gone, bots are going to start pushing back against the mech. Everyone goes through trauma in their own way, but he is pushing aside help and burning any bridges he could have had while he is doing it. For beings who live as long as we do, that is going to be a hard lesson for him to learn."
Yeah, and we were all going to be here to witness most of it. Movement out of the corner of my eye caused me to turn and see Lunarblaze and Barricade walking back. "Well, I better be going. The docs want to do more exams on this," I motioned to my newest scar. "And it would be best if I wasn't late. Try not to offline anybot while I'm gone."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
Paul's 1st P.O.V.
Even after three weeks, I still felt amazed that our struggle with MECH was finally over. We weren't looking over our shoulders at each other, wondering if someone next to us could be one of their spies. MECH was truly gone, and the air felt so much lighter because of it.
Of course, not everything was sunshine and daisies. While I hadn't broken my arm, like I had feared, it was bruised to the point where I wasn't supposed to be doing any hard work. And, given that there was nothing else they were doing, many of the bots at base were making sure I was bored as I could be. Hell, Cohrada even took over my after-action reports.
As I suspected would happen, Bryce had given me the riot act once everyone was safely back at Unit E. I guess taking government property and assets was a big no-no. But, it had worked out in the end, and MECH was gone. He just had to be creative with his reports, and he would be fine. But the man didn't share my sentiments. I was currently on a month-long lockdown here at the base for leading the raid. Prowl and the other bots had, of course, agreed. Even Pandimala, once she woke up, agreed that I had acted irrationally.
So, here I was.
Thankfully, there was only one more week left on my punishment, and then I would be free to get things moving on my end. While my company was working on getting the suits to every human at the base, there were a few other projects in their infancy stages that I wanted to make sure kept moving. We would need them if the fight ahead were to get as bad as it might.
"Look what I found here, Corvus." Glancing up, I sighed when I saw Raum and Michael walking up to me. "I don't think he was trying to hide from your exam, despite him not being there."
Panic shot through my body before I took out my phone. Scrolling to my calendar, I felt like I could hit myself when I saw I did have a checkup scheduled with the man. Shit. "I'm sorry. I forgot we had an appointment today." Given everything that was happening, I wouldn't risk causing that kind of problem right now. Even if it was with a man who I was sure should be institutionalized.
"It's okay, Paul," I frowned at the exaggeration the man had behind his tone. "I'll just crawl into a hole and leave this existence. No one needs my help anymore. I see how it is."
Rolling my eyes at his antics, I moved to sit on a bench nearby. "You'll live," I shot at the man as he joined me. "But seriously, thanks for coming to find me instead of telling the bots." I didn't need them worrying about me skipping medical appointments, even if I didn't mean to this time.
"No problem. They have more to worry about than you wandering around the base with your head in the clouds." I shot Raum another look at that as he started to look over my arm. While it still hurt for him to poke at it, the pain wasn't as bad as it was at MECH's headquarters. Good. I could already see improvement.
"So Paul," I focused on Michael as he spoke. "Do you have any idea why the bots are pushing the five even harder now? Everyone's noticed, but as far as I know, no one has asked any of the others."
A sigh escaped me before I could stop it. "There are a lot of factors in play. One thing that we weren't expecting when we first started training them is that a group of fanatical Decepticons might show up here, since this was the final battlefield in their conflict with the Autobots. Given the mix of bots residing here, that will lead to a large clash. We want them to be as ready as we can make them for when that fight comes. Along those lines, we also want them to be ready for the enemies that we have been preparing them for. Cybertron and any bounties that they might place on our heads for my rescue are the ones I am most worried about right now."
When a tick noise escaped Raum, I glanced at the medic. "With how hard they are training, I bet they will have no problem with those stuffy bots from Cybertron. I think I remember you mentioning something called the 'Galactic Alliance' once. They are another entity we have to watch, right?"
As the man moved into giving me a basic physical, I nodded. "Right. However, I don't expect anything from them for quite some time. They are struggling among themselves and don't have the power to go investigating some small planet in the middle of nowhere. No, outside of the Decepticon fanatics, Cybertron is more likely than not going to be our biggest threat. One of our inside bots who stayed behind sent a message not too long ago. Bounties for everybot who evacuated Cybertron have been issued. Of course, the bounties just say 'at large' so we still have time to plan. Earth will most likely be the last place they would bother looking for us."
There was silence between us at that. Cybertron was a big worry, as was the DJD. The worst of those would be the DJD, given that we couldn't keep track of their movements like we could the bots on Cybertron. While the training the newsparks were going through now was intense, they were going to need it to even hope to survive that group. The other dangers that we faced could wait.
"So," I focused as Michael moved to sit next to me. From the mischievous look on his face, I wasn't going to like this question. "Who has the highest bounty?"
My face deadpanned at his question. That wasn't important, but I could see why he was interested. "From what the report said, Soundwave was given the highest bounty with a hundred million credits, followed by Vox and Domino at eighty-five million each." At the looks on their faces, they wanted to know all of the bounties. So, I figured I could get ahead of them and answer that. "Most of the Autobots, drones, and the symbiotes have thirty million, as does Cohrada. Wheeljack, Ironhide, and most of the Decepticons have fifty million. Scavenger has a fifty-five million bounty, Springer has a seventy-five million bounty."
"Why is Springer's so high?" Raum interrupted as he typed something on his phone.
While I was curious about what he was typing, I ignored it for now. "Triple-changers always have higher bounties than most. The more damaging they are, the higher it will be. Speaking of that, Blitzwing's bounty is eighty million and, finally, Knockout's is also eighty million."
This time, it was Michael who asked the question. "Wait, how is Knockout's the same amount as a triple changer? He's a medic."
"No, I didn't notice." I winced when Raum put a little more pressure on than he needed to. Thankfully for my dignity, I didn't yelp this time with the extra pain. Instead, I just shook my head. "Anyways, that was the subject of our most recent meeting. It surprised all of us that he was that high. We were figuring he would be on Scavenger's level, possibly in the sixty million range, but being on the same level as a triple changer threw us at first. It was Nemo who pieced together what their plan probably is."
Even without saying it, I shuddered at what they had planned. If events hadn't come to pass as they did, then they might have used this situation to destroy everybot who was here on Earth. "Well, don't keep us in suspense, your godliness. Just what do you all think the mongrels on Cybertron were planning by giving Knockout such a high bounty?"
While a part of me was annoyed by the sass they were giving me, the other part of me appreciated that they were treating me as a regular being, instead of being in awe of me as a god. It made me feel more connected to them than any sort of reverence would ever give me. "We think that the Council, the elements that were never comfortable with Decepticon Village to begin with, want to take out the influential Decepticons that allowed Decepticon Village to happen. While Soundwave was easy to give a large bounty, given that he was most likely caught on camera taking Paul, Knockout was a key figure in Decepticon negotiations on Cybertron, despite his lack of engagements with the Council. Discrediting him by blaming him for Paul's 'kidnapping' is going to make sure that the Decepticons who may wish to travel to Cyberton struggle for a long time."
"How are you all going to recover from that?" I flinched when Raum went over a particularly sensitive spot on my arm.
As the man started to put away his equipment, I answered the medic. "Honestly, there is only one way that we are going to bounce back from this. Thankfully, it is a very strong argument that even the Council won't win against."
"We are going to use Pandimala and show them how slagging moronic they were being in locking Paul away." The three of us glanced up as Jazz walked up. "It's one thing to fight against our Decepticon friends, along with the rest of us, but getting the savior of Cybertron involved? They aren't going to have a pede to stand on once they come for us."
I couldn't help but laugh at that. He was one hundred percent correct. Cybertron had unknowingly picked a fight that they had no hope of winning. Pandimala wouldn't bow to any of their demands. She didn't do politics like that. Maybe if she was a strategist, Pandimala might play the field a little cautiously. But, she was a medic, and medics didn't dawdle on semantics. She would go to the root of the problem and remove it. And, in the case of my recent captivity, the problem was the Council.
Once they made their true strike against us, we would be ready. Though few, our allies spanned enough specialties that we would make the Council regret ever locking me away. The only reason they were allowed to get away with it before was because I had been lost in my own depression. With Pandimala returned to my side, there would be nothing to hold me back. If Cybertron came after me, we would make sure that they regretted it.
My allies would make sure that I would never have to go back to that state, that songbird locked in a gilded cage. That wasn't who I was. I was a pinnacle god, one who cared about his friends and supporters. I would not return to that prison. Not with her here. I couldn't disappoint her. Not when she had given so much already for us…for me. No, I would fight them, not interfering be damned. I would make sure that the sacrifices she made would not be in vain.
No matter what.
Pandimala's 1st P.O.V.
After everything that happened over the past solars, it felt nice to just take a flight. The weight of MECH's presence finally being lifted off of my shoulders was a weight I was glad to be rid of. At least while I was here on Earth, I didn't have to worry about who I was speaking around and who would use what I said to cause hurt to others. And that same relief would be with the others as well. Paul had a relaxed air around him that seemed to calm everyone else down. I wasn't sure if the god had noticed it yet, but I'd bring it up to him eventually.
"Pandimala, can we talk?"
Glancing to my right, I watched as Arzen lowered himself to my height. One of the stipulations I had to go out on this flight was that I be accompanied by another bot, regardless of who they were. So, I figured that Arzen and I were long overdue for a talk. He had gone through a lot, and some of that was by my servo. Even though I knew I was not in control when that happened, a conversation still needed to be had. But, I wanted it to come from him naturally.
Given that we had been flying for over an hour already, it took a little longer than I thought. But, at least it was here.
"Sure, Arzen. What is it?"
There was another pause. "It's about the raid…about our fight." The mech seemed to struggle with his words for a moment. "I'm sorry."
Wait…sorry? What the frag was he sorry for? "Arzen, why are you apologizing? You saved me."
"I'm not sorry about saving you! I'm not! But…during that fight…I could have tried to connect to your processor sooner. Before Prometheus opened the doors, I could have tried to link up with you right away. But…I hesitated. And because I hesitated, I hurt you."
"Arzen, enough." I would not allow the mech to carry that kind of guilt. He was too young to be burdened by that. Plus, he had enough to carry with him as it was. "Without combat experience, you risked so much to help me. Bots with more experience would have hesitated. Do you remember my first time in conflict?"
The young mech took a few nanos to think before he spoke. "Would that have been when you got that bomb strapped to you by Dreadwing?"
I felt a brief passing of regret at the mention of Dreadwing. Even though I tried to stop his fate, it wasn't meant to be. "No, that would have been second. You should remember the first one, Arzen, since you were the one who sent me there."
It took him a few nanos before he seemed to connect the dots. "When you went to back up 'Bee to get his tcog back from MECH."
"Correct," I confirmed for the mech before I continued. "However, even though we were able to get the t-cog back from Starscream, he could have done a lot of damage to me if he had decided to stay and fight. Bumblebee was in no state to fight, given that he had to protect his tcog, and I certainly didn't have the training to face him then. Honestly, I was lucky that Starscream is as much of a coward as he is. Even though I would have told myself back then that Starscream was no match for me, I now know that he didn't get to be the second in command of the Decepticons on his intellect alone. If he had stayed and fought, I would have been even more damaged than you were after…our fight."
That was another thing I struggled with. Even though I wasn't in control for the fight, I had still hurt him. I had a session with Prowl after this flight to talk about it, though. Hopefully, that would help take away some of the guilt that I was feeling. If Red Alert hadn't gotten to him as quickly as she did, then he could have been permanently damaged or worse…
No, I couldn't think thoughts like that right now. We were out here relaxing, and dredging up that guilt wouldn't help either of us.
"I didn't think about it like that," Arzen agreed as he rose back up in the air a little. "I guess combat is a lot to take in, and we are both learning."
He was right. We were both still learning. And, honestly, I should probably see if I could get some lessons now too. With the threat of MECH gone, I was going to need help as well if we were going to face whatever challenges may come. "You're right. We are both still learning. I think I will ask Springer and some of the others to give me some training as well. Might even make Knockout feel better when he isn't with me."
"Yeah, and stop him from," I felt worry in my spark when Arzen suddenly cut himself off. He had flown up much higher than I thought he had, but nothing up here should have interfered with his flightpath. The military made sure that the airspace was clear.
After a few nanos, and no word from him, I decided to call out. "Arzen!" Panic was building in my chassis as silence followed my call for a few nanos.
Just when I felt Knockout open his side of our bond, Arzen finally spoke. "'Mala, we are the only ones who are supposed to be out here, right?"
"Yeah, why?" What was going on? Arzen was acting strangely.
'Pandimala, what's wrong?' Knockout communicated as I waited for Arzen to answer.
Before I could answer my mech, Arzen answered me. "My radar is picking up something coming in fast. But, I can't tell where it is coming from. It might be malfunctioning. Could you recalibrate it when we get back to,"
His scream caused my spark to lurch into my vocals for a nano as I tried to take in the situation. What the frag happened? "Arzen!?" My spark rate increased as a large mass suddenly loomed over me. Faster than I thought I could, I pushed my thrusters to their max and barely avoided the falling mass.
"Pandimala, what's happening?" Knockout's voice was filled with panic, matching my own as I straightened myself.
While I knew I needed to answer Knockout, I needed to find Arzen first. After a few nanos of searching, my chassis reacted before my processor could register my thoughts. Once I was close to the ground, I transformed, running to get rid of the momentum I had, before I slid to a stop next to the downed mech. "Arzen, are you alright?" I had my comm open, so Knockout would at least know that I wasn't in serious danger, despite my panic.
I started to run scans on the mech as he retracted his visor, showing that he was conscious. "Yeah, I just lost my telemetry and couldn't pull myself out. Thankfully, Skywarp has been helping me with controlled crash landings."
Thank Primus for Skywarp. Falling from that high, especially unexpectedly, could cause a bot to panic and, in turn, cause more damage to themselves. "That's good. Remind me to thank Skywarp when we get back."
"Pandimala, what was that?"
Arzen's question allowed me to refocus on the situation at servo. Since the ground bridge repairs were still in the works, the two of us would be the best ones to investigate what just crashed down. "I don't know, but we are going to find out." And with that, I realized I had better actually address my mech. "Knockout, we are fine now. Something just crash-landed and almost took us with it. Arzen and I are going to investigate."
There was silence on the other side for a few nanos. "Be careful, 'Mala. And keep your comm open. I'm using the base comm right now, so everybot else can hear you. Let us know what you find."
"Will do K.O., and sorry for scaring you. It just took me by surprise."
"You didn't scare me. I just…didn't like you being outside of contact." I smirked at the denial my mech was in. Oh, he had been scared. But, I wouldn't push it for now. Maybe later, once we got through whatever this was.
"Is that why you were ready to race out of the base?" Of course, just because I was going to drop it didn't mean that everyone was going to. Cohrada was playing with fire.
"Watch it snake, or I'll turn you into an oil tub!"
With the hiss that I heard behind Knockout's vocals, I knew I needed to get us refocused. "Arzen and I are approaching. It looks like a personal craft. About the size of the Jackhammer if I had to guess." I put out the remaining fires using my cannons and tried to find a way inside.
"Hey, 'Mala, you might be able to wrench the doors open here," Arzen called out. When I moved over to him, I saw that he was right. There was enough damage to the outer doors where I might be able to force them to open.
While it took a little longer than I thought, I was able to force the door open enough for the two of us to get inside. "Arzen, stay behind me. I'll need you to cover me if they are hostile." Once I got his confirmation nod, I bent down and walked in.
My optics widened at the sight in front of me. The inside of the ship had taken some damage, though it seemed its sole occupant had taken the brunt of the damage caused by the crash. Speaking of said occupant, I slowly walked up to where they were seated. Not surprisingly, the mech was unconscious. And, I did not recognize him. He was definitely a seeker, given his build and damaged wings. His white plating was scuffed, though I could make out red and orange markings underneath the grime that had gotten on his chassis.
"Pandimala, situation report." Prowl's vocals came through my comm.
Oops. In observing the mech, I forgot to check in with the base. "One occupant, seeker mech. He appears to be unconscious. I'm running scans on him now to see if anything needs repairing here in the field. We will need an evac back to base, and a med berth ready for him." As I continued to run the scans, I noticed that he was malnourished. Barely intaking enough energon to survive. Was he that low, or was there something else in play? It didn't matter for now, but I would ask him about it once he woke.
"Arzen, while Pandimala is checking on the mech, see if you can find any sort of markings on the ship that might tell us where this mech comes from," Soundwave spoke through the open comm. It was probably best that we were all connected through the comms.
"Okay, where should I start looking?" Arzen asked as he moved around me and to the main console.
"Try to access the main terminal. If his ship is registered with a known power, their crest will usually appear on screen momentarily." The way that Soundwave and Arzen communicated seemed second nature to the mechs. It made me proud that the two were so close after so little time, relatively speaking.
Returning my focus to the mech in front of me, I felt relief when the remaining scans I would run out here came in. He was healthy enough to move without causing any more distress. "The mech is fine for having just been in a crash. We'll have to repair his wings and a few cuts he sustained once we get the mech to base." Just because I was on scene with him now didn't mean I would end up treating the mech indefinitely. Honestly, unless Arzen or one of the other intelligence bots discovered any reason I should be working on him, I would leave his care to bots who were better trained. We had no information about this bot, and not giving him the best treatment we could would be a poor way to start off any sort of relationship with him.
"The transport ship just left with Red Alert and Springer. Let us know if you find out anything more." Prowl responded, leaving the line open.
The wait wasn't long before Arzen spoke again. "Um, I think I found a crest." Since the mech was stable, I risked a glance at whatever Arzen was looking at. I had never seen the symbol before, but it did look like some sort of formal crest. On a base that reminded me of a police badge was a seeker wing on the upper right and upper left side, and the main focus on the crest was three very distinct blades intersecting each other.
While it wouldn't help me identify it, there were two more markers that might help the older bots figure out whose crest this was. Back in my world, there was a written language that we identified as High Moon Script. It was mainly used for some of the major Transformers video games in my old dimension. Since coming here, however, I learned that most beings referred to it as mechano script, since mostly mechano species used it. The lower left side of the crest had the mechano script for the letter 'V' and the lower right had the mechano script for the letter 'M'.
As Arzen described the crest, I could almost feel the tension on the other side rising. They recognized the crest and, from the tension Knockout was sending through our bond, I could tell they were nervous about it. Slag it, and we just finished dealing with MECH. What sort of situation did this unknown mech bring with him?
"Arzen, are you sure that the script letters are 'V' and 'M'?" Springer, who must have opened a line on their transport, asked Arzen. Yeah, they were really worried about it.
Risking another glance at the crest, I could confirm that Arzen was seeing it right. But, before I could say anything, Arzen spoke up. "I'm sure. Soundwave made sure I knew all of the different scripts for coding and hacking reasons. It's definitely the 'V' and 'M' of mechano script. Why?"
"Slag," Okay, this was getting weird. Why were they all acting like this? Just what crest was that? Thankfully, Blitzwing, who just spoke, continued to give us an answer. "Ve have to be careful. Zhat mech is from Vestium Major."
It took my processor a few nanos to realize why that planet was important. Vestium Major was one of the seven member planets of the Galactic Alliance. We had to be very careful with how we interacted with this mech. But, for now, we needed to get him back to the base for repairs. Then, we could discover what brought him to Earth.
Paul: *facepalms* We just finished with MECH and now you are bringing the Galactic Alliance in! Already!
Authoress: Technically, fate is bringing them in. I'm just writing about it as it happens.
Paul: *sighs* Well, at least the bot is unconscious for now. But, we are going to have to be careful. With those bounties out on most of the bots at base, this situation could turn out badly.
Authoress: First things first, the mech has to wake up, and you all need to find out what brought him to Earth in the first place.
AN: And here is the final chapter of this arc! I had a lot more fun writing this than I thought I would. That is especially that last part. Oh boy, is that a lot to unpack. Firstly, though, we see that Bryce is learning the difficulties of dealing with the bots. But, given the positives of working with them, it is a sacrifice he is willing to make...he just isn't too thrilled about it.
I won't go into details about the chapter, but I will say a couple of things. One, if you have read Awakening Resolve, you have met the mech that has crashed onto Earth. As far as I am aware, I never described the mech physically in that story, but I guarantee he is in there. You will most likely learn who it is by the next chapter, but I wonder how many of you will know who it is before that?
Well, enough of that for now. As I did at the end of the first arc in Valor, here is the name of the next arc!
Arc 2: Political Troubles
Again, thank you all so much for the support you have given. Until next we meet, TTYL! *listening to Ain't No Love In Oklahoma by Luke Combs*