Figured I'd take a shot at the Animated universe, the writing for the previous 3 seasons was pretty solid built the story up and the framework is all there. Main goal so far is to keep the characters with the respective personas and add some growth while adding to the Animated mythos. The first installment is a bit of resetting the stage but enough of me babbling, hope you guys enjoy =)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Transformers ReAnimated
Season 4#:
Episode 1#: Aftermath

“So it’s come to this…” a sigh escaped from Prime’s lips as he crossed both arms and looked out across the city. Cybertron had been a sight for sore optics but in the last couple solar cycles, Optimus had just about enough.

A white hand landed on Optimus’ left shoulder. “You sick of the attention already? I thought you wanted to be a hero!” Ratchet cracked a half smile then lifted his hand away. He stood next to his captain and gazed at Cybertron. “We’re all going places now.”

“I know…” echoed Optimus. He shut his optics and nodded. “I know.”

“It wasn’t your fault, you know that right? Nobody could’ve stopped him. Primus, even Jazz couldn’t.” Optimus remained silent and kept his head down, Ratchet decided to drive the conversation elsewhere. “Did he even drop by before leaving?” asked Ratchet with a chuckle.

Optimus’ optics opened and he turned his head to face Ratchet. “Yeah, he wanted to give his best and farewell before he headed off.”

“That kid never could sit in a place too long. The glory and promotion went straight to his processor just as I guessed it would,” laughed Ratchet. He heaved his chest and turned to face the door. “Bulkhead is off too, probably got the biggest promotion out of us all. Who would’ve thought it?”

“I presume you’re taking up your offer?” queried Optimus standing in Ratchet’s shadow.

Ratchet turned his head and cracked another smile. “No… this old bot has seen enough action. Besides, I have some other promises to keep.” Ratchet began to walk away and as he left the room, he turned his head around. “A piece of advice Prime, keep your head level, trust your gut and good luck.”

Optimus watched his comrade leave the chamber as the door slid close. “Will do.”
==========
Sentinel threw his arms in the air and shook an imaginary object. “Where the frag does that low grade re…” Sentinel stopped midway into this sentence as his optic caught sight of Optimus.

Optimus cocked an optic. “Oh hi Sentinel.”

“OH HI? Where do… you get the nerve!” exclaimed Sentinel Prime. He watched on while Optimus ascended the steps and met him. Sentinel pushed his finger tapping on Prime’s chest. “Just cause you captured Megatron, Shockwave, Lugnut, round up stasis pods that were stolen during the Great War AND return 75% of the Allspark to Cybertron – doesn’t make you better than me. Understood?”

“Whatever Sentinel,” replied Optimus. He had grown weary of Sentinel Prime’s shouting matches and as much as he wanted to take Jazz’s advice to spark, Optimus didn’t want to miss out on Sentinel getting all flustered up on his achievements. “I have a question for you before we start, where did you assign Bumblebee?”

Sentinel scoffed and released the tension in his shoulders. “Sorry Optimus, but that’s top secret Elite Guard business. I think that ever since the whole Longarm Prime incident – intelligence outta be safeguarded around here.”

Optimus gave him a glare but soon noticed another individual approaching. Optimus instantly gave a salute and received an awkward look from Sentinel. Optimus tried to make some facial expressions, but before Sentinel could catch on, the newcomer had already made his presence known.

“Ah just the Primes I was looking for. As you were Optimus – it’s good to know some bots still know their manners,” spoke Alpha Trion. He tilted his head and stared at Sentinel.

“Oh hey uhh… Alpha Trion, always good to see you up and about,” exclaimed Sentinel Prime scrambling to make an attempt to salute. He gave his comrade Optimus an icy glare and whispered under his breath. “Thanks a bunch buddy… You coulda given me a warning!”

Optimus rolled his optics and turned his attention to the Autobot elder. “Ahem – Alpha Trion sir, what have you called upon this… what is this exactly?”

“Ah for an unofficial meeting of course. Something that is off the record books and will stay that way provided nobody here slips their tongue.”

Sentinel blinked momentarily. “Why are you both looking at me? Oh c’mon…”

“There is a lot of turmoil on Cybertron right now – too much to simply deal with via the council and the Elite Guard. With Ultra Magnus still in critical condition and Optimus Prime’s return to Cybertron – faith and security has been restored to Cybertron for the most part. However, the Elite Guard forces are still stretched thin throughout the galaxy. Decepticon uprisings as reported by the Autobot engagements are not dwindling in number.”

“Well they will be once we broadcast the shape their leader is in!” announced Sentinel making a stand. He turned to Optimus. “How do the humans say it? We’ve cut off the head of the snake and its right and left arms. The Decepticon cause is just a wounded animal now.”

“Nice choice of metaphor Sentinel but a wounded animal may prove to be even more dangerous without a head. It’ll lash out in every direction without restraint,” retorted Optimus receiving some support from Alpha Trion. Then he smiled a bit. “Oh and snakes don’t have arms.”

“Not anymore they don’t!” responded Sentinel Prime hastily trying to regain some respect.

“That’s not really my point, but there is definitely the need to quell these uprisings. With Omega Supreme and the Magnus hammer back in possession, I believe its time to rally the troops. Someone needs to get to the outer rim and bolster the spirits of the Autobot Elite Guard and get the job done. Someone like…”

Sentinel began to shake his hands and got worked up. “Well as much as I’d like to and am fully qualified to…”

Alpha Trion raised his hand to pause Sentinel. “I was going to say someone like you Optimus Prime.”

“Hey! Aren’t I the Magnus around here? Why do you get to make the decisions you bureaucratobot!” protested Sentinel Prime.

Alpha Trion’s face became stern. “Although you are currently the highest ranking Prime that’s operational at the moment – the council does not back you 100%. Unfortunately we are split amongst our approval across the different Primes. Besides you’re needed here Sentinel Prime, on Cybertron. There is a lot to be done – bolstering Elite Guard defenses and dealing with the trial of Megatron, Shockwave and Lugnut.”

Sentinel’s optics darted around and sighed a breath of relief. “Well if you insist that I’m the bot for the job, I couldn’t say no right?”

“Yes, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. There also happens to be the case of your run in with the Decepticons in space Sentinel
Prime. Cliffjumper reported to the council that a number of Autobot weapons, goods and information files were stolen by one of the Decepticon prisoners you brought back to Cybertron.”

“Uh… yeah about that… I can explain…”

“Make sure you deal with it,” replied Alpha Trion in a serious tone. He gave both Primes a stern look. “Cybertron needs you two now more than ever and everyone is going to have to give it their all. Can I count on your services to the Autobot cause?”

Without a moment’s hesitation, both Optimus Prime and Sentinel Prime stood up straight and saluted the Autobot elder. “Yes sir!”
==========
“How are you doing field tech?” asked a soft voice.

Ratchet spun around surprised. “Oh hey!” The old med-bot re-stabilized himself and smiled warmly. “I’m fine thank you. How are you Arcee? Are you taking everything ok?”

Arcee timidly walked onto the bridge of Omega Supreme. “Yes – thank you. I should be surprised… or shocked is a better word. But for some reason I’m not.”

“Well I can’t imagine being offline for several thousands of stellar cycles and not being surprised at some revelations,” replied Ratchet getting up from his seat. Ratchet noted no response from Arcee. “Maybe it’s just me.”

“Ratchet! Uhh sir!” came another voice.

Ratchet caught sight of two smaller bots entering the bridge. They were punitive in stature and had similar designs. Ratchet motioned for Arcee to wait for him as he walked away to meet the two Autobot mechanics.

“Umm… Huffer was it?” questioned Ratchet digging into his memory core for the bot’s identification.

The blue one shook his head and waved his hand, then pointed to his slightly shorter orange partner. “That’d be him. I’m Pipes.”

“Same protoform mold?”

“You betcha,” replied Huffer.

Ratchet scratched his chin and gave Arcee a look, then refocused on the two short Autobots before him. “Well what can I help you with?”

“Actually we need you to sign off some data forms,” responded Pipes. He dug into his storage compartment and pulled out a data pad. With a twist of a switch, the pad virtualized several documents. “I’ll need you to sign…” Pipes peered over and pointed to several spots. “Here, here, here, here, here…”

Ratchet groaned as he flipped the tip of his index finger off and out extended a digital pen tip. He proceeded to fill them in.

Pipes watched on as the elderly med bot filled in the forms. He pulled the finished forms back into the pad as more forms came out. “Umm… there’s a few more you missed… Here, here, here, here and… here…”

Ratchet clenched his teeth. “Anymore?”

“Nope, we’re all done here!” smiled Pipes as he put the pad away. “Repairs are already approximately halfway completed. He should be fully operational within a couple solar cycles. Now if it’s all the same to you, we’ve gotta be heading back to the dock. New transwarp drives are coming in within the mega cycle and they’re not gonna install themselves!”

Ratchet looked up and admired the repaired bridge. “That’s good to hear Pipes, can’t say you guys haven’t done a good job so far.” He turned back to Arcee and helped her down the stairs. “Now as for you, we gotta get you back to Perceptor’s lab. As much as you don’t like them, you’ve got one more checkup.”

Arcee simply nodded and followed Ratchet down the steps and off of Omega Supreme’s bridge.
==========
Optimus heaved his chest out and stepped aboard the Elite Guard ship. “Alright Optimus, this is what you’ve been waiting for. This is it – it’s a substitute job but it’s the job you’ve been waiting for.” Optimus continued to run it through his thoughts as he boarded the bridge. He stepped forward to be greeted by four Autobots. Optimus glanced around and propped his hand up. “Hello, I’m…”

“Optimus Prime correct?” asked the slender female med bot. She stepped forward and extended her hand. “Umm it’s the human custom you reported to shake hands when you meet someone for the first time right? It’s an honour to meet you and work with you Optimus Prime. My name is Red Alert, I’m the medical officer for this crew.”

Optimus grasped her hand and engaged in the hand shake. “Yes and likewise. Your medical service records are particularly well known and it’s nice to know some bots are making use of our reports from Earth.”

“Hey! Let me take a shot at this!” A yellow bot jumped up from his chair and extended his hand. “Nice to meet you Optimus Prime – sir! The name’s Hot Shot, Elite Guard Trooper and I can’t wait to visit Earth sometime! Wait, so you’re the bot subbing in for Rodimus Prime right?”

Optimus smiled and couldn’t help but draw the comparisons between the young officer standing in front of him to Bumblebee. He extended his hand to the bot too. “Umm yes, it would appear to be so. However, our mission detail isn’t to Earth. The remaining Allspark fragments and loose ends have been designated to someone else. But I’ll see what I can arrange with Autobot High Command after we’ve finished our job.”

“Just make sure you drop me and Brawn over there off before you do. Some of us ain’t so interested to visit an organic world,” replied a red Autobot. He stepped forward and simply saluted Optimus. “I’m Ironhide, Elite Guard trooper just like Hot Shot, just looking to finish the job.”

Optimus nodded and looked over at Brawn who remained in his seat who just glanced over momentarily. “Well let’s get going.” Optimus took his seat in the command chair and gave Hot Shot the go.

The large blue and white Elite Guard ship disconnected from the loading dock and retracted its landing gear as the auxiliary thrusters roared to life. It maneuvered upwards and rushed into the sky leaving Cybertron behind.
==========
“That thing all prepped and ready to go?” asked Ratchet gazing upward. The two massive sides of the spacebridge rose into the sky from the ground and glistened in the light of the stars. He ascended the staircase to the control panel. “Nothing like a jump through space in the night huh?”

Bulkhead busily continued his work calibrating the settings on the space bridge punching dozens of keys per click deep in concentration. Upon completion he looked up and stood upright. “Sorry, what did you say?”

“Never mind kid,” replied Ratchet watching several haulers load cargo in front of the space bridge.

“Sorry about the hold up, there are tons of new space bridge regulations and different passwords for each connection that I’m getting a processor ache trying to sort through them all in addition to my new responsibilities,” groaned Bulkhead punching in a few more commands. “I’ll be sure to catch up with you on Earth the moment I get a real breather.”

Ratchet smiled and walked back down the stairs. “No rush kid, I’m not headed to the rust bucket anytime soon. Settle into your new job before you take any vacations. Luckily my job is less glamorous than yours.”

“At least you get to go back to Earth,” replied Bulkhead. He yanked open his stomach compartment and pulled out a case of discs and handed them to Ratchet. “Bumblebee was wondering if you’d be able to return these movies and songs to Sari. Guess he didn’t have enough time to swing by Earth since he’s already off.”

Ratchet gripped the case under his arm and nodded. “Sure thing.” Ratchet took the case along with him as he marched to the space bridge. “Arcee, Jazz, you two ready?”

Jazz loaded his gear onto the hauler and helped Arcee on. “Sure thing, just give our last companion a couple clicks to get his things in order…”

Ratchet quickly dashed to the rear of the hauler to see a white bot rummaging through some gear. “Hey – just who do you think… Wheeljack? What in the name of the Allspark are you doing here?”

The eccentric Autobot scientist popped his head up and held up a wrench. “Ah Ratchet! Just adding on a turbo-stabilizer to the hauler’s main drive, but I’m all done now.”

Ratchet could only give Wheeljack a blank stare. “And what is the purpose of a turbo-stabilizer?”

“Well if my calculations are correct…”

Ratchet put up his right hand to pause Wheeljack. “IF?”

Wheeljack chuckled. “Don’t worry, my calculations are usually right. But the turbo-stabilizer will make our ride 78% smoother if my calculations are correct.”

“And if not?”

“Well just be blown to the far side of the planet we’re headed to,” responded Wheeljack candidly.

Ratchet buried his face in his palms. “What makes you think the ride is supposed to be smooth? We’re about to jump from one planet to another, go get that thing off this hauler immediately!” Ratchet observed as the Autobot Science Minister grudgingly went to detach the supposed upgrade. He motioned for Jazz to join him. “Tell me why this nutcase is joining us?”

Jazz hopped over and swung across the hauler while landing on his feet. “Not quite sure, but Autobot High Command assigned an Elite Guard member and an Autobot Science Ministry official to this job. I’m here to help gather the remaining Allspark shards, deal with the stragglers left on Earth and basically maintain the peace.”

“Well it looks like he’ll leave us in pieces if he doesn’t get going,” muttered Ratchet complaining about this predicament. The job was supposed to be a relaxing one, go back to Earth, help with the cleanup effort and maintain Autobot and human relations. He didn’t mind so much that Jazz was tagging along but Wheeljack who had a knack for blowing things up irked him the wrong way.
==========
“I’m telling you this is a waste of our time…” muttered a heavy voice.

“Shut your trap!” responded another.

Two giant shadows moved across the cavern walls of a small lamp lit camp. As the first shadow emerged into the dim light, the figure raised its arms to shield itself from the stimulus.

“Did you two find anything?” demanded a strict but slightly feminine voice.

The first creature lifted some broken debris out and threw it across the cavern wall. “This answer your question?” asked the first not hiding any discontent in his voice.

“Speak like that again to Strika and you will suffer the consequences!” Twin blades struck out from behind and hugged the throat of the first tightly. A narrow visage appeared from the shadows and snarled. “The war may be over and our cause may be in shambles, but we never abandon the chain of command – understand?”

“That’s enough Cyclonus,” ordered Strika signaling the Decepticon warrior to back off. She stepped forward to inspect the debris laid out before her. With a swift move she lifted it to her optic level. “Where is Megatron?”

The shamble of debris remained silent. Strika cracked her digit joints and made sure to use minimal pressure as she lifted what remained of the unit’s head up.

“I repeat, where is Megatron?” demanded the irritated Decepticon general. She gave the piece of junk a subtle shake. Again there was no response. She tilted her head and moved in closer. “Where is Shockwave then?”

“Try using a little more force,” suggested the first giving Cyclonus a dirty look.

Strika cocked an optic. “Well if somebot exercised some restraint – I could! This Autobot piece of scrap is practically offline! What good is he to me if I can’t extract any information?”

The pile of debris’ one failing optic shimmered. “Yo… you’re not going to get anything out of me… He’s already… al…” Before the sentence could be completed, the optic faded and the body faded to black and dark grey.

“Stinking piece of Autobot scrap!” roared Strika throwing the body into the fire to feed it. She pointed at the first in front of her. “If I weren’t so low on troops and resources, I’d feed you to the flames too Spittor! We’re deadlocked and without any word from Shockwave or Megatron! I can only assume the worst…”

“Luckily for you – some of your troops aren’t incompetent,” hissed a new voice as a slender bot dropped in from the ceiling of the cave. A black and jagged Transformer emerged from the darkness. “I’ve got the coordinates.”

“Excellent work Oilslick. Where?” asked Strika with eagerness.

The face of Oilslick emerged from the vile liquid in his head capsule. “Megatron was last reported to be on some third-rate nobody planet – Earth.” He extended his arm out handing Strika a holo map projector.

“And where’d you get this information?” asked Spittor with discontent.

“A reliable source – that’s all you need to know. Cost me a few weapons here and there but nothing I couldn’t do without,” answered Oilslick calmly.

Strika’s face brimmed with interest as she downloaded the information. She turned to the rest of her crew. “Commendable work Oilslick. Now let’s get going.”

“Going? Where?” asked Spittor.

“Earth you reject!” sighed Cyclonus shoving Spittor aside as the Decepticons followed Strika out of the cave.

 

Hmm, quite an interasting start.

I was thinking doing a fanfic about a forth season as well, though now i'm not sure if I should

 

Great start! Anything I've tried to say sounds cliche...so...I'll be waiting for more...hurry...

 

Episode 2#: Rules of Engagement

“What’s the situation?” Sentinel Prime’s voice echoed through the mostly empty hall.

The Autobot laboratory was filled with the sounds of machinations humming.
The acting Magnus stood patiently watching the Autobot scientists dismantle a domineering purple frame strapped down on a slab.

The acting Magnus cautiously strode into the room but caught sight of the numerous safety mechanisms in place around the frame. He relaxed and strode in more confidently.

The technician lifted his laser scalpel and craned his neck from the meticulous work. He shifted his attention over to the red robot who was still working undisturbed at the other end of the tablet.

“Doctor?”

The red robot’s audio receptors picked up the call but continued to work for a few more clicks before putting down his tools. “Yes?”

The assistant indicated Sentinel Prime’s presence with a head jerk.

“Anything I can help you with Sentinel Prime? As you can see, we’re in a
critical stage of the procedure. I cannot spare too much time.”

Sentinel Prime nodded and joined the doctor’s side looking down at what he was working on. “I understand Perceptor. It’s been several megacycles past your last report was due in. As you may know there are many concerns over what we’re allowing you to do here, as much as I hate it, the Council wants to know what’s going on each step of the way.”

Perceptor nodded. “I must apologize for the tardiness of my report but if you would just pick it up from the desk over there.” He put down the sensory probe in his left hand and picked up a micro cutting laser.

Sentinel Prime grabbed the data-pad that was sitting on the cluttered desk and activated the download bream. He nodded in approval and looked up from the information download. “Then are we on schedule with Megatron’s procedure?”

Perceptor nodded.

“Good, there are some brass coming down today, they want a good look at the so called legendary Decepticon leader.” Sentinel’s voice was filled with discontent. He began to head out the door but paused and turned his head. “Just make sure everything is flying smoothly. Finish up here with that Lugnut character and save the rest to the sub directory mainframe. I’ll read through it in the next solar cycle or so.”

“Understood Sentinel Prime.” Perceptor didn’t look up and got straight back to work on the Decepticon frame in front of him.
==========
A thunderous explosion erupted overhead raining shrapnel across the battlefield. Optimus Prime ducked and hugged the side of the rocky wall for protection. The young Autobot commander peered over the edge and noted the two oncoming foes. Large and unrelenting, the Decepticons had him in their sights despite his cover. Cautiously clenching his battle axe in his right hand, Optimus activated his faceguard and signaled for Hot Shot.

A few meters away, a yellow race vehicle navigated the rocky ground and stuck to the wall of a chasm. Closing in on his commander’s hiding spot, the car shifted and transformed into a tall slender robot.

“In position,” responded Hot Shot holding his wrist communicator to his mouth and whispering quietly over the intercom.

Optimus nodded then swung his frame over the rock barrier and charged towards the Decepticons. Deflecting the barrage of lasers from the first Decepticon with his axe blade, the Autobot propelled himself into the air and landed on the bulky Decepticon tank. Struggling to maintain control of his balance, Optimus cut into the tank’s thick armour with his blade to serve as an anchor.

“I’ll rip you to scraplets!” threatened the irritated Decepticon reversing and forwarding to attempt to loosen the Autobot pest.
The angered robot twisted and contorted transforming into a much more intimidating form. A swift jerking movement of the arm swept Prime off the large menace as it clenched the Autobot’s leg in its hand. Optimus began to lose sight of his surroundings as the large gargantuan spun him around in the air like a human rag doll.

The yellow robot rushed out from the chasm with flamethrowers blazing. The brash Hot Shot rushed side to side dodging the second Decepticon’s attacks managing to get by with only a few scorch marks on his armour. He raised his communicator to his face and sent for help. “Red Alert, prepare to move in, Prime is down!”

The second Decepticon was a hovercraft and like the tank – a rather sizeable foe. Armed to the tooth with ballistic weaponry he unloaded it against the lone Elite Guard Trooper while his comrade dealt with Optimus.
Optimus felt the weight of his body upon him as he crashed head first into the ground. He groaned and saw Hot Shot dash beneath his attacker while attacking both Decepticons. The young Autobot cadet was clearly skilled and brave – perhaps a little too brave as the hovercraft Decepticon transformed and swept him off his feet with a single strike.

“Hot Shot! Regroup at my position! I need your help to take them down!”

Hot Shot recovered from his fall quickly and complied. Transforming into his Cybertronian race vehicle mode, the Autobot accelerated while evading assaults. “What’s the plan Prime?” puffed the warrior transforming back into robot mode.

Optimus Prime considered his options only to realize he had none. This battle was different than those on Earth. Unlike the Decepticons on Earth there was no ulterior plan in motion to drive the attack, the Decepticons here were concerned with one thing only which was to rip any and all Autobots apart. Their desperation was evident, but Optimus Prime had been charged with the task of quelling the Decepticon uprisings and it wasn’t his intention to give up.

“I caught your message to Red Alert on the main feed– how far off is she?” questioned Prime fending off a tackle using his axe as a shield. He grunted and swung back, knocking the attacker a few steps back.

Hot Shot checked his past transmission feeds. “About two or three cycles till she gets here.” Hot Shot shoved Optimus Prime out of the way as the tank Decepticon’s blade came crashing into the ground. The Autobot looked up and rolled to the side and then locked onto his commander who was now several meters away from him. “Provided that we’re still in one piece by then – she was only expecting to repair you.”

Optimus Prime shook off the attack and swung back at the enemy with his axe once more. “Alright, the odds are against us but I need you to keep them moving on their toes!” commanded the Autobot leader as he narrowly evaded a tackle from the second Decepticon. He switched over to Autobot communication frequencies, “Keep them moving and I’ll tie ‘em down. We’ll need to get Red Alert to deliver the final punch!”

Hot Shot relayed the transmission to his comrade and began his task. Keeping himself a small target, Hot Shot ducked and made his round between one of the Decepticons while firing away with his flamethrowers.

Optimus caught sight of the opportunity and disengaged his Decepticon. His scanners locked onto Red Alert’s signal moving into position. With Hot Shot distracting the primary targeted Decepticon, it made it simpler for Optimus to charge in and launch his grapplers. The hooks wrapped around the giant’s head as Optimus plunged his feet into the ground for support. With a yank Optimus brought the Decepticon towards the ground and with another forceful pull, the war machine toppled over.

“Red Alert, now!” shouted Optimus retracting his grappler hooks while readying himself to deal with the secondary threat.

Optimus struggled with all his strength to keep the titan down. He
could feel the anger of the Decepticon as it strained against the cables pulling Prime forward as it tried to lift its head. Redirecting his energon supply to his servos, Optimus managed another tug and kept the powerhouse floored.

The slender red and white medical Autobot revealed herself from the edge of the rocks and charged up her cyber anesthetic. She jumped into the air and landed on the titan and stabbed the medical drug into its system.

“Take a stasis nap – make it a long one…” said Red Alert watching the injection tool discharge the anesthetic into the Decepticon’s primary mechfluid tube.

As the Autobot medic completed her task she stood up. But before any celebration could take place in the blink of an optic, Red Alert flew away towards the rocky wall that Optimus had used for cover earlier.

Hot Shot looked up to see the second Decepticon smack the medical officer into the rock obstacle. Enraged, the Autobot warrior lashed out trying to tackle the Decepticon. Hardly moved by the assault, the Decepticon simply lifted his foot and kicked the yellow warrior in the direction of his companion.

Optimus Prime restrained himself from yelling out, for the moment he had a single Decepticon to contend with. One on one, the last time he confronted a Decepticon bot to bot was Megatron – and he had the assistance of a prototype flight pack. Optimus pushed the fear and doubt to the back of his processor. “I’ll take you on!” Optimus powered up the booster rocket on his axe.

A crooked grin tore across the Decepticon’s face as he transformed into vehicle mode and rose into the sky. Easily dwarfing Optimus, the giant hovering vehicle descended rapidly forcing Optimus to make a run for it. In midair, the Decepticon reverted to robot mode and caught the red and blue Autobot with his hands.

Optimus muffled shout behind his faceplate resonated as his legs were crushed in the Decepticon’s grip. The crippled Autobot leader was then thrown into the ground where he watched on helplessly as the Decepticon roared victoriously.

“Hot… Shot,” groaned Optimus trying to speak through the horrendous pain. His optic sensors were damaged but he could distinctly see the trooper’s bright frame across the battlefield. “Hot Shot do you copy? Red Alert… Get out of here!”

No response came from the downed Autobots, Optimus then realized they were in stasis. Refusing to give up, Optimus fired his grappling hooks with the left one hitting the target. The Decepticon simply laughed as Optimus Prime tried to reel him in. The laughing stopped as a tiny beige and green warrior smashed into the side of his head tearing the jaw apart.

Optimus watched in amazement as Brawn brought the Decepticon warrior down into the ground. The little Autobot hung onto the rivets in the side of the Decepticon’s neck as it twitched and tried to stand back up. Brawn then let go of his right hand and pulled out Red Alert’s cyber anesthetic and plunged it into the exposed armour plating of the Decepticon’s neck.

Brawn rode the Decepticon’s head down triumphantly as it collapsed and crashed. The Autobot stepped off his ride and looked up into the sky as the Elite Guard vessel cast its shadow over them and landed. Brawn tapped the side of his helmet, “Alright Ironhide, I’ll need three medical evacuation lifts and a pair of stasis cuffs. I’m up two points ok?” He walked off his mount and looked down at Optimus Prime who was immobilized in the crater he was thrown into. “Next time, call for back up ok?”
==========
“Steady now. I’m almost done,” reassured a calm voice. Red Alert returned her diagnostic tool to a tray and picked up a clamp. She placed it on Optimus’ leg and freed both her hands. The well trained medic then went in with micro-instruments to clear away the damage and reconnected the severed tubes and cables. “Alright and we’re done here.”

Relieved, Optimus finally relaxed in the chair and gave Red Alert a nod of thanks. “Sorry about all this. If it were in my power… no if I had better planned the attack, none of this…”

Red Alert raised her hand to stop Optimus. “Its perfectly alright, we’re still in one piece are we not? I think that at the end of the solar cycle – that’s all that matters. Besides I can see how its eating you up inside, the guilt I mean.”

Optimus’ face could only show confusion in what the medic was trying to convey.

“It’s a gift of mine,” smiled Red Alert seating Optimus back down. She reached for a small plasma torch and sealed up the leg wound. “I believe Ratchet would’ve had this skill too, most medical technicians are trained to be highly observant. And you Optimus Prime are emanating feelings of uncertainty.” Red Alert stood up and started to put her tools away. “You’re not Rodimus and none of us expect you to be Rodimus. To speak the truth…”

“Hey! Red Alert, and err Prime! You guys better get to the stockade report chamber, we’ve got an incoming transmission from Cybertron!” shouted Ironhide emerging in the doorway with Brawn at his side.

Brawn gave Prime a stare and walked away.

Red Alert nodded and helped Optimus Prime up while Ironhide headed to the stockade chamber. “He doesn’t hate you.”

“Who?” queried Optimus.

“Brawn,” answered Red Alert helping Optimus with each step. “He likes to test newcomers and especially since you were placed in command, Brawn probably finds you like a thorn in his side.”

“It wasn’t my intention to be…” started Optimus.

“I know, but I thought I’d just point out something I observed. Brawn will be difficult to get a long with and at times impossible but if we’re going to complete this mission, our synergy must be in sync.”

The young Elite Guard commander sighed and nodded. “Thanks for the advice Red Alert. I think I’ll be able to manage the rest of the way to the room. Please tend to Hot Shot’s injuries.” Optimus felt Red Alert’s arm let go and his weight leaned onto the side rail of the hallway. He hoisted himself up and walked down the path before him.
==========
“When I get out of here, I’ll reduce you to atoms!” threatened the hulking Decepticon. The giant form filled most of his cell and cast a long shadow in front of Brawn.

Brawn smirked. “Funny, coulda sworn you said the same thing a couple megacycles ago.” The tiny Autobot powerhouse hit a few switches as it raised a field around the cell silencing the Decepticon. Brawn ambled down the brig’s hallway laughing. “Cons, nothing but talk, talk, talk…”

“Got that right,” laughed Ironhide punching away at keys behind a computer module. A monitor flashed to live bringing in the transmission from Cybertron just as Optimus Prime strode through the port.
“Cybertron, come in. This is Ironhide from the Elite Guard ship under the command of… Optimus Prime,” announced the red Autobot following Optimus into the room with his optics.

The three Autobots saluted the viewscreen as an image of Cliffjumper flickered and then stabilized his appearance. The smaller red Autobot returned the sentiment and proceeded. “Autobot High Command here. It’s good to see you all in one piece. How many Decepticons were captured? Their IDs and status?”

Ironhide brought out a portable recorder drone and activated it. He then gestured for Optimus to join Brawn and himself with the drone hovering above their heads. The drone hovered above their heads and followed the trio into the ship’s brig.

“Designation Brawl, Tidal Wave and the leader of the bunch here… Dreadwind.” Brawn turned back to the drone after pointing to each of the Decepticon prisoners. He looked down at his data-pad to check the prisoner’s background information. “It’s as we thought. He is still out there.”

“At least that confirms our suspicions. This is far from over Autobots, with Megatron captured and the second offline. He is the last one that can pose a threat to the continued safety of Cybertron. The council has made it the priority in addition to the quelling of the Decepticon uprisings that the third be tracked down.”

“With his second lieutenant captured here, I think we’re on the right track,” added Ironhide giving Brawn a nod.

In the midst of this Optimus was lost. Without the mention of names or anything of the sort, there was no way for him to understand the references that the two of his subordinates were making.

“Excellent work. Continue and at the same time we’ve received an alert from one of the Autobot ships in the area. This one is actually a priority case – and you guys happen to be the closest.”

Optimus decided to step in just as Brawn interjected. “Absolutely, we’ll leave immediately.”

Cliffjumper smiled and nodded. “Good, we have a council member on that ship. Top priority – now I leave your crew to it. We’ve got our hands full on this end processing the Decepticon prisoners. Cliffjumper out.”

As the transmission ended, Optimus observed the two Autobots snicker. He kept his optic on Brawn as the Ironhide headed out of the brig first. Brawn hardly paid Optimus any attention as he passed him by.

“Brawn,” called Optimus standing still at the end of the brig. His optics flared with contempt. Restraining his growing frustration towards the Autobot, Optimus took a deep breath in anticipation of Brawn’s response.

The Autobot soldier stopped in his footsteps and grumbled. “Yes?”

“This has to stop. I understand that you may not like me. I’m not Rodimus. I’m here to do a job.” Optimus turned around to see Brawn facing him. “I’m not asking you to like me – but understand this, we all have to work together whether we like it or not. So I have to politely ask for you to…”

“Hold it,” interrupted Brawn pointing at Prime. He clenched his teeth and sized up the aggressor. “You have no right – no right to judge me in this way. If you think I have a problem with who you are, I don’t if that helps your ego any.”

“Then what’s with the attitude? Cause I’ve had it up to here!”

Brawn stared at Optimus and noted the unwavering resolve in the Autobot commander’s optics. “My problem isn’t with you. Not directly anyway.”

“Then what is it?”

“My problem is that you call yourself a leader. I have no idea how you made it out on Earth alive or even managed to capture Megatron – but understand this. With the way you’re going, this crew isn’t going to survive and I’m not going to let that happen.”

Optimus was frozen in silence.

“Out here, the Decepticons are chaotic, desperate and thus more
dangerous than you can imagine. The only way the Autobots have been able to survive here is thanks to organization and strong leadership. So unless you’re going to step up, you’re not getting anything out of me. Get it through your processor before the Decepticons do. The rules of engagement out here are different. Maybe you haven’t realized it or maybe you have but get up to speed before we’re all offline.”

Optimus could only watch, paralyzed by Brawn’s words. Struck by the possibility of truth in the Autobot’s words, Optimus could only reconnect the meaning behind Brawn’s statement to the words Ultra Magnus once said to him upon the discovery of the Allspark. It shook his spark to the core.
==========
Tapping sounds filled the hallway as the security drone made its way along the row of inmates hovering near the ceiling. Its diagnostic arm struck along the sides of the cells causing the rhythmic pattern of the sounds.
The stasis cuffs were tight; the extra energon bonds that strapped the giant prisoner down didn’t help either. The large metallic prisoner lifted his head to watch the crowd of Autobot scientists and various council members observe his behaviour. It had been only a few weeks and he had grown so very tired of his situation.

“We’re hopeful to say the least,” replied Perceptor leading his entourage away. He motioned for the white guard to seal the prison gates. “The Science Committee will devote and reallocate resources to decipher his inner-working. With any luck we can duplicate their technology for our purposes.”

Sentinel Prime smiled and placed his hand on the red Autobot’s shoulder. “Excellent, for eons the Decepticons have outpaced us in the war effort with flight and in time we will gain the…”

The sound of Sentinel’s voice was cut off as the final giant metal gate sealed the prison. The metallic prisoner shifted his head up where the bonds allowed him and viewed the status of the other prisoners through their reflections against the shiny metal walls.

Lugnut was offline – presumably so from the procedure done on him earlier in the day. Blitzwing was sealed off from all stimuli and was hidden from view. The two Starscream clones were being surprisingly quiet. The ever loyal Shockwave was farthest from his cell, but Megatron could see that there were just as many security locks on Shockwave’s cell as his own if not more.
His prospects were grim, locked in a prison once more. Megatron had no bumbling professor to manipulate and had no connection to any of the prison systems. Escaping would be quite a feat to pull off.

Then it hit him. Megatron watched as the security drone passed by his cell tapping the sides of the prison again. Using what strength he had left, Megatron pried and taxed the restraints holding him to their max culling the drone’s attention. The drone halted its looping march and scanned Megatron. It was then that the Decepticon tyrant tested his theory. His scan came clean and he received a shock of electricity and let go. The drone began to make its rounds again. As the drone passed his cell and made its way down the hallway, Megatron noted the absence of the tapping sounds. The tyrant smiled and began to ponder what were the limits of his technopathy.

 

Episode 3#: Growing Pains

Nostalgia, the only word the bot could use to describe the view before him. Ratchet sighed and helped pull through the space bridge the rest of the crew’s gear. He watched Arcee take in her new surroundings and couldn’t help but crack a smile. She had gone through the worst of the worst in the war and now with her being online with a new slate, Ratchet would ensure that she would never have to go through that again. She would be under his watchful optic.

“Say, where do you think I should put these?” Wheeljack clutched two large cylindrical tubes under each of his arms and surveyed the foreign city of Detroit.

Ratchet rolled his optics and pointed away from himself fearing the worst. It was likely that the so called brilliant scientist had another explosive invention hidden in his belongings. “Anywhere that’s not near me got it?”

Wheeljack simply nodded and walked off to set down his gear. The elderly Autobot shook his head in disbelief of the zany scientist that had been sent to accompany them. Perhaps it was his punishment for turning down his position on the council. But that was a problem he’d speculate later. For now he had been tasked with strengthening the bonds between Autobot and humans and it would have to start with the rebuilding of Detroit, the city that laid in ruins post Megatron’s final attack.

“Bringing back memories?”

Startled, Ratchet looked around and then finally down to see a smiling Sari standing at his feet with Captain Fanzone and Professor Sumdac. Ratchet nodded and returned the sentiment.

“Yea… yeah…” sputtered Ratchet.

“I hope they’re good ones,” said Sari recollecting the events of that day.

“What’s the problem ya rust bucket? Spend a few days outta Detroit and ye ferget how small we are?” Captain Fanzone quipped as he took a sip of his coffee and glanced over at the Autobot arrival team that had landed on top of Sumdac tower. He groaned as the thought of more machines in the city set in. “Alright, who are the new guys?”

Ratchet looked over to see the reference to Arcee and Wheeljack. He snarled silently at the police captain and grunted. “Just some extra helping hands Autobot command thought could help with the clean up effort here.”

“Yea, cause that’s exactly what we need more of – machines to clean up the damage the machines caused…”

Professor Sumdac candidly ignored the captain’s remark and stepped in. “That will not be necessary. As much as we appreciate your Autobot command’s good will, my new automatons are well on their way of cleaning up and restoring the city to its former state.”

Ratchet shook his head politely. “Regardless, we are here to help and we will help where we can.”

“Hold on there pal. I still remember the last time your automatons went haywire. We don’t exactly have an Elite Guard squadron here to take care of things, you sure they’re cool this time?” queried Jazz hesitantly after overhearing the professor mention the word “automaton”.

“Well… that’s only cause an Allspark fragment was involved the last time!” shouted Sari flying up to meet the white Autobot optic to eye. She turned to Ratchet. “So with my dad’s automatons restoring the city, what do you say we get you guys reacquainted with your base of operations?”

“Which actually brings us to one of the reasons we’re here,” replied Jazz following up Sari’s rebuttal. “Pr… We weren’t able to get all the shards, so there are still a number of shards scattered out there – shards that can and most likely will cause trouble potentially worse than what happened with the automatons.”

“Yes, but that will take place after we get all this stuff out of here.” Wheeljack turned from focusing his attention on Jazz to Sari taking her up on the offer. “That would be optimal,” replied Wheeljack helping one of the drones pull the loader with their gear. He dropped the lift and dusted his hands. “I would love to get the opportunity to closely examine the setup you have here.”

Jazz smiled and pat his new comrade on the back. “Don’t stay cooped up in the lab too long, there’s a whole new planet to explore! Earth is a grand planet to be stationed at. You’re welcome to take a spin around the city with me later if you’d like.”

Ratchet surprised with himself agreeing with the Autobot scientist raised his head and motioned for the other Autobots to gather and descended the steps of the space bridge’s foundation platform. He hollered and motioned with his right hand for the other Autobots to follow. “Ok Autobots, let’s get moving. We’re moving in.”
==========
A tin barrel tumbled through the streets and ricocheted across the city block as citizens fled from the projectile. Screams could be heard down the street from the panicking people. The canister of petroleum impaled itself on a broken fence. Oil leaked profusely causing cars to swerve out of control and collide into one another. Chaos erupted.

“Hey what do you think you’re doing? That’s precious oil!” Mixmaster’s arms reached out grasping the air before him. The loss of valuable oil caused the Decepticon to whimper slightly.

Dirtboss carried an irritated look across his face. He gave his partner in crime a cold look to shut him up. “Listen up ya mook, it’s been a long time since we’ve been home. Those Autobots caused us quite a bit of trouble with that transwarp explosion. And I think its payback time.” His optics narrowed. “Plus interest.”
==========
Wheeljack inspected the large monitor setup in the Autobot base of operations. “This is antiquated. This is obsolete. This is defective. This is a travesty!” Pushing the mess of junk off the computer module, Wheeljack slammed his palms onto the system. “How you managed to get anything done with this setup is beyond me, but its time to upgrade!”

Ratchet groaned getting fed up with the Autobot scientist every passing cycle. But just as the commander of the Earth Autobot contingent was about to snap back, the monitor began to start flashing. The alarm siren sounded off causing the other Autobots present in the complex to rush into the command room.

“Sensors are indicating two Decepticon energy signatures in the vicinity of northern Detroit,” announced Wheeljack reading the data-feed. He punched in a few keys and brought up a video surveillance from the human news. “Let’s get a good look at whose causing the ruckus…”

The video displayed a well built, tall robot throw a car into the building across the street. Citizens that remained in the area were fleeing from the multiple explosions that bloomed on the screen. Meanwhile on the top of a small shop, a much smaller green construction robot cackled surveing the chaos before him.

“Are they familiar?”

Ratchet nodded solemnly and spoke up, “Mixmaster and Dirtboss. We’ve had a run in with them before.”

“So what’s the download on these two boss man?” chimed Jazz gearing up his weapons.

“Right,” noted Ratchet contemplating what to do. Optimus was no longer around and it was up to him to command this crew. “The Constructicons are a couple diodes short of a full processor, but do not take them lightly. Mixmaster is a tough bot and he’s got the ability to produce cement putty that will immobilize you. So definitely watch out for him. And as for Dirtboss, he has a few tricks that I’ve not fully uncovered namely the mind control device that he possesses. But he’s definitely the more dangerous of the two.” Ratchet spun around to see the crew standing before him. “Jazz and Wheeljack with me.”

“May I protest?” questioned Wheeljack. “I’m not suited…”

“No, you may not,” retorted Ratchet cutting the scientist’s babbling short. He pointed to Jazz and Wheeljack. “We’re going to need all servos on deck. They may be dim but they’re still a force to be reckoned with.”

“How about me Ratchet? How can I help?” queried Arcee’s soft voice. She looked up at him intently as she sat alone over on the cement slab couch that Bulkhead had built upon moving into the base so long ago.

Ratchet looked at the ground and rubbed his nose bridge deciding how to best deal with Arcee then looked up again. “Arcee, I need you to stay here and operate the com-systems. You’ll need to be our extra optics and audio receivers. I’ll also need you to contact Sari at Sumdac Tower and get all humans in a city block radius evacuated. Alright Autobots – this is what we’re here to do. Transform and roll out!”
==========
As a child, Carmine Fanzone had quite the fondness towards construction vehicles. This fondness changed over the years growing up as the vehicles became automated and especially now that they were ripping apart the city. “Where’s the backup?” demanded Captain Fanzone roaring over the sounds of the crackling fires.

A fellow armoured officer checked the status of the human rescue services over his intercom. “No good sir, we’re on our own.”

Fanzone’s anger began to build up and felt the overwhelming helplessness take him over. “What do you mean no good?”
“They can’t get past the barricade of crashed vehicles!”

Angered by the sudden turn of events Fanzone smashed his fists into the side of the car he was seeking refuge behind. He lifted his right fist into the air and shook vigorously at the sky while roaring, “This is why I hate machines!”
==========
“Are we done here?” Mixmaster tossed another car into the masses of police officers gathering down the road. He was getting tired of the senseless destruction. As a Constructicon, his goals in life were simple, take it easy and drink some good oil. Neither goal was being met.

Dirtboss leapt off the shop he was standing on and crushed a park bench while keep his arms folded. “Not a chance!” He charged head first knocking an empty bus top side then charged over to Mixmaster. “You got a problem?”

“No, no problem at all…” stuttered the frightened Decepticon continuing the mayhem that the duo had started. He quickly sent his optics over to Dirtboss who had started causing trouble again. “Man I miss Scrap…”
==========
Magnetic sparks lashed out and caught the metal debris as it flew to the side. The humans huddled in a bunch looked up hesitantly and realized they had been saved. Ratchet gave a reassuring look to let them know to run to safety and rushed further into the field.

“I see them,” reported Jazz crouching down ensuring that he stayed out of the Decepticon’s line of sight. “We’ve gotta move in soon or else the flames are going to spread too far.”

Ratchet acknowledged the Elite Guard soldier’s message. “The two are tough, no doubt about it. So we’re going to need you to circle around them in the back. Wheeljack and I will engage them up front.” Ratchet received a simple nod from Jazz as the ninja bot vanished. He activated his EMP device charging it. “Wheeljack, can you configure your tools to their extreme settings?”

“I don’t think… I can’t do what you ask; I’m not a soldier…”

“Yes or no Wheeljack, that’s all I asked!” snapped Ratchet finally giving into his frustration at Wheeljack. He pointed over at the two Decepticons wrecking the city. “I’m not asking you to take them down; all I’m asking you is if you can make your tools spark threatening!”

Wheeljack gulped and re-modulated his cutting tools that he kept strapped to his utility belt. He stabilized himself and raised his optics to meet Ratchet’s. The simple connection allowed Ratchet to know he was ready.

“Alright soldier, we’re going to move in and if what I described to you happens don’t hesitate to take me down. And don’t do anything unless I tell you to do so on the sub-frequency.” Ratchet leapt over the barricade and led the white Autobot scientist into the midst of battle.
==========
Mixmaster raised the roasted frame of an automobile over his head and prepared to throw it. Suddenly the weight became overwhelming and his feet that were planted firmly on the ground began to crumble all around. The ground gave way causing the Decepticon to descend further and further into the ground.

“Whuh? What’s goin’ on here?” Mixmaster searched all around for the cause of this phenomenon before raising his head. The Constructicon let go and rushed out as the car came crashing down on his foot. He jerked his leg up and rubbed it while hopping on his good foot. He shouted in pain. “Yow! What was that for?”

Ratchet retracted the magnetic lancers on his arms as he stepped
forward on the battlefield. “Why do you think Decepticreep? We’re here to put a stop to your menace!” Ratchet leveled his arm up to his optic level and aimed his EMP generator. “Now give this madness up and I won’t have to use this!”

Dirtboss happily pranced down the street and smiled. “Was wondering when you scrap-heaps would get down here!” Without warning a drill shaped mechanism shot out and latched into Ratchet’s crest.

Instinctively Ratchet fired the EMP device and disabled Mixmaster. The bulky Decepticon felt his limbs go limp before going into a deep stasis. Ratchet noted the success and gave Wheeljack a grim look as he fell under Dirtboss’ mind control. Wheeljack understood the situation and suppressed his doubts. The scientist ignited his re-modulated cutting knife and swung at his comrade slicing off Ratchet’s arm that carried the EMP device thus disabling a potential friendly fire incident.

Dirtboss cackled while sending a mental command to his newfound Autobot minion. Ratchet raised his other arm and engaged the magnetic lances that immobilized Wheeljack. Without any say in the matter, Ratchet struggled against the control as he lifted his still functional arm causing the Autobot scientist’s frame to rise higher and higher into the sky.

“That’s as far as you go,” threatened Jazz locking his weapon around Dirtboss’ neck. He tightened his grip and assessed the situation. “One twist and its pop ya dig? So I think we can make a deal here. You cool with that? Let the Autobot go… slowly and I’ll do the same. Then you and your buddy will come with me to the brig all quiet like.”

“Sorry mook but that ain’t happening,” smirked Dirtboss signaling for the control device to burrow deeper into Ratchet’s processor. A bright light on Dirtboss’ arm flashed red causing the Constructicon to smile. “Ya see, if that drill goes in an inch further, your medic pal over here will suffer permanent processor damage. Unless you’re willing to lose both your comrades today, you’ll let me and my buddy go brig free.”

Jazz reassessed the situation. There was no way out. If he dealt the final blow, there was no doubt that Dirtboss’ processor linked control device would activate faster killing Ratchet and then subsequently dropping Wheeljack from that great height. He suppressed his disappointment and relaxed the weapon’s grip.

“Alright dog, you win.” The Autobot ninja retracted his weapon and began to step back cautiously keeping his weapon locked onto the Decepticon foreman. He raised his other arm trying to calm the aggressor. “Now let’s be cool and you let both Autobots go…”

Ratchet began to lower Wheeljack towards the ground. In a split instance the drill that burrowed into his head popped out returning to Dirtboss’ head and Wheeljack plummeted from a safe height to the ground. Dirtboss faced Jazz, “I’m a bot of my word. Now how ‘bout your end of bargain?”

Jazz nodded. Dirtboss transformed into vehicle mode and extended its forklift. It slammed into Mixmaster’s silent frame and raced out and through the fire. Jazz heard the sirens of the human firetrucks arriving to quench the flames of the Decepticon attack. His internal sensor went off as he looked to the sky noting the landing of Sari.

“What took you so long?”

Sari rubbed her head and hovered over the wreckage below. “There was a break in at one of my father’s labs. Some sensitive material and goods were stolen unfortunately.”

“Anything I can help with?”

Sari wore a frown shaking her head. “No it’s been done, plus we’ve got our hands full here. Let’s get these Ratchet and Wheeljack out of here and back to base!”

Jazz pressed the side of his visor to perform a quick diagnostic scan. “No good, well not for Ratchet. It seems as though that gizmo or gadget that was controlling him is causing quite some system shock to his system.”

Wheeljack groaned weakly being held up by Jazz who scanned him. He forced his left arm to work while his right sparked and went offline. He lifted his chest frame off the ground. “I’m… I’m fine, but three fourths of my appendages are damaged… I… I can attempt repairs on site if needed…”

“No way,” answered Jazz waving his free hand. “You better take it easy or else you’ll get an amputation.”

Sari placed her right hand over Ratchet’s head and shut her eyes. “It’s fine, I can do this.” Her hand began to grow blue with a quiet pulse emanating through Ratchet’s frame.

“What… what are you doing?” questioned Wheeljack letting his scientific curiosity swallow his attention putting his pain to the side.

“Finding the cause of the damage,” replied Sari calmly. She pulled her hand off the crest and looked up. “That device caused severe damage to his nervous system. Likely due to how the mechanism works to control the victim’s movements. The device penetrated deeper than when Bulkhead got struck.”

“Meaning?” asked Jazz.

“I have to operate and fix him now otherwise he won’t stay in stable stasis for much longer.” Sari ran the process through her mind once more and looked up from Ratchet’s silent frame. She noticed the tools scattered around Wheeljack’s frame and the ones still connected to his waist. “Can I…”

Wheeljack noted what the human girl was referring to and decided that it may be quite an interesting experience to observe this unfolding phenomenon before him. “Borrow my tools? By all means.”

Sari thanked the damaged Autobot and received the tools from Jazz as she got to work. Her left hand transformed into several clamps that opened up Ratchet’s head. Sari’s eyes lit up bright blue tapping into the inner power that lay dormant within her. She picked up a tool with her right hand and put it to use.

Wheeljack watched in pure awe. The girl who appeared to be human now exhibited a blend of Cybertronian and organic nature that had never been documented before. He could not fathom the ability of this girl to operate flawlessly repairing the damaged Autobot medic.

The blue light left Sari’s eyes as she completed her task. Sari then sighed and rested her arms by her side. Ratchet wearily awakened and tried to move. Sari set the Autobot back down onto the ground and squeezed a smile.

“Did… did we get them?”

Sari’s smile widened into a grin and nodded. “Yup.”
==========
Dirtboss pulled up to a cave and transformed into robot mode. He moved around and started pushing Mixmaster’s frame into the darkened cavern. “Honey, I’m home!”

Footsteps could be heard increasing in intensity. A slender purple figure emerged from the shadows with a scowl on her face. “I told you to stop calling me that! Remember who saved your sorry fenders and led you back here!”

“So what if you’re calling the shots! I’m the boss! Dirtboss!”

“Right…” groaned the female Starscream clone rolling her optics. “Everything went off on your end without a hitch?”

“Who do you thin you’re talking to? Of course it went fine! But I do have one complaint. You interrupted me as I was about to finish those Autobots off for good! But then no… my alarm had to flash red as you made your getaway.” Dirtboss gave her a stare and then pulled the rest of Mixmaster into the cave. “Which reminds me did you manage to get what we did this all for?”

The Decepticon femme nodded. “Everything went as planned. The attack forced the humans to flee and the plant was easy to raid. Like taking candy from a protoform! Everything was done under the time limit.”

“Good, then can the plan proceed forward?” asked Dirtboss raising one of his mechanical optic brows.

An orange visor lit up in the darkness followed by a fourth Decepticon entering the conversation. “Affirmative, commencing operation Autobot Apocalypse.”

 

Getting good already. Any more?

 

Thanks for the support Anodythe, I'll try to finish up Episode 4# soon, trying to draw as much inspiration from the Allspark Almanac at the moment =)

 

Episode 4#: Into the Woods

A frail hand set down on the Elite Guard symbol of a blue chassis. Alpha Trion slowly sat down next to the injured Autobot supreme commander and weakly smiled. “How are you old friend? I bring good news, it’s almost over; peace is finally within our servo thanks to Optimus… and you.”

The elderly Transformer shut his optics and leaned his head towards Ultra Magnus’ silent frame seemingly to listen to him speak. No words came from Ultra Magnus’ mouth. A long pause filled in before Alpha Trion opened his optics once more.

“Yes, he lived up to your expectations and I have no doubt now that he will exceed them. He brought Megatron into custody. With two of the three Decepticon warlords accounted for – Cybertron’s safety is guaranteed.”

At that moment just as Alpha Trion was about to shut his optics once more, Sentinel entered the medical facility followed by the twin fliers Jetfire and Jetstorm. The ancient Autobot decided to keep his attention on the newcomer to prevent any unpleasant loud behaviour from Sentinel Prime.

“We heard voices, are you talking to yourself?” asked Sentinel provocatively with a chuckle. Perhaps age was finally catching up with Alpha Trion and his position up for grabs – something Sentinel Prime eagerly added to his list of things to acquire.

“No,” stated Alpha Trion noting the demeanor in Sentinel’s voice. “I was simply conveying the state of things on Cybertron to Ultra Magnus.”

Sentinel’s face emoted his surprise. “Right… Anyway, the medical bots will be down in a couple megacycles to finalize the repairs on Ultra Magnus. For the mean time, you should leave him alone and let him rest before the procedure.”

“That may be ideal.” Alpha Trion stepped up from his seated position and took a final look at the Autobot supreme commander. “Have we established contact with the other Primes?”

Sentinel nodded in accordance to confirm Alpha Trion’s query. “Communications are secured to finish the final touches on Megatron’s trial. The sooner we put this behind us, the sooner all of us will be at peace.”

“We’re not out of the woods yet, but call the council to order. Today justice will be decided upon.” Alpha Trion followed Sentinel and the twin Autobots out of the medical chamber.
==========
Ratchet and Arcee assisted in pushing away the large piece of debris that had once been the roof of the building. Professor Sumdac signed a piece of paper and handed it to his associate before following the two Autobots into the main laboratory that had been broken into a few days earlier.

“So, what exactly was stolen?” questioned Ratchet surveying the damage. The break in was through the roof, there was little damage done otherwise, but a large device had been ripped out from the ground in the center. Bending down on one leg Ratchet activated his optic scanner. “Wait a moment…”

“Destronium,” called out Professor Sumdac inspecting his new skylight.

“Exactly what I was about to say.” Ratchet returned to his full height and checked to see if the security cameras were still intact, unfortunately they had been reduced to spare parts. “Any chance those cameras were able to catch anything before…”

Professor Sumdac shook his head.

Arcee took a closer look examining the damaged cameras. “It seems to me as though the weapon ordinance that caused this damage must’ve produced a positronic impulse upon impact.”

Ratchet’s left optic arched. “And how would you know that?”

“The burn marks and the of course my scanners are picking up residual positronic readings.” Arcee tried to hide her laughter at her comrade’s surprise. “But if you want a more literal answer, I was trained as an intelligence officer. Investigation for the collection of data was one of the protocols I downloaded during my training.”

Professor Sumdac rubbed his chin trying to find a link between the weapon emissions and what was stolen but could not manage to find one. “Who… who would’ve done such a thing? And why?”

“Most definitely the work of a Decepticon,” announced Ratchet linking together the data he had just received from Arcee. “Positronic discharge is unique characteristic of Cybertronian military weaponry – namely Decepticon’s more dangerous than conventional weapons, but for these levels to be recorded… the weapon must’ve been quite concentrated and powerful.”

“Without Megatron or Shockwave, not many other Decepticons can produce such a powerful attack.” Arcee candidly smiled at Ratchet after the display of such comfortability with the information she downloaded from the Autobot headquarters’ database.

“Except for Starscream!” exclaimed Ratchet stumbling on his answer. He then recalled the data from the run in with Starscream’s clones. “With Starscream offline… This may very well been the handiwork of his clones…”

“But what would they want with such a large amount of Destronium?” questioned Professor Sumdac somewhat relieved that they had narrowed down the list of potential culprits. “When Nanosec stole the Destronium, the threat was an explosion – but no explosion has occurred!”

“Thank the Allspark for that. But that’s what Arcee and I will work on figuring out after we visit the moon for a bit. Have to make sure that Decepticon tech ain’t there for the pickings. Hopefully Sari, Jazz and Wheeljack have better luck in their investigation…”
==========
Jazz’s arm slammed into Wheeljack’s gut, wrenching the Autobot scientist from the ground and into the air. The white ninja spared no time looking back and rushed forward carrying the protesting scientist with him. Buzzing next to his head was Sari Sumdac whom had engaged maximum burn on her jet pack. The trio were rushing through the thicket thanks to the blood curling roar behind them.

“Whose idea was this anyway?” screamed Sari at the top of her lungs.

“It’d be this bot over here.” Jazz noticed a clearing ahead and accelerated his feet movement.

Wheeljack stopped waving his arms wildly and sealed his audio receptors with them. “If you could refrain from using your sonic attack I’d very much appreciate it! And I don’t appreciate your finger pointing either Jazz…”

The three cleared the thicket into a small forest clearing. Jazz pushed his feet into the ground coming to an abrupt halt. Wheeljack fell off Jazz’s arm as the white Autobot spun around and ejected his energy-chucks into the air and subsequently catching them.

“If I hadn’t swept you outta that situation you’d be roasting along with the forest right now ya dig? At least in this clearing not too much can catch on fire – I hope… Now I’m gonna need you to cool down and get ready to fight those terrible lizards!” Jazz spun the right energy chuck and poised to strike. He glanced over at Sari. “Think ya can dance toe to toe with those monsters?”

Sari activated her suit as a helmet enveloped her head protecting her. The mouth plate sealed her face with the visor completing the final transformation. “I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve.” Her hands opened up creating bright blue balls of energy.

Jazz’s optics narrowed. “Shiny.” The Autobot would have to wait before admiring Sari’s ability as a chrome tail whipped through the air sending Jazz flying into the air. Caught off guard, Jazz couldn’t avoid the damage but at least he could mitigate some by flipping in the air and creating a softer landing with his Circuit-su training.

Large and imposing, Grimlock stomped into the clearing deafening the Autobots with his roar. The rumbling caused Wheeljack to bounce up and down from the ground with each of Grimlock’s massive steps. Grimlock’s beady eyes captured the downed Wheeljack and raced towards him.

Noting that his comrade was incapacitated by the awe of such a creature, Jazz danced into action with a snap kick into Grimlock’s head sending the tyrant lizard off course. The mechanical T-rex’s momentum carried through, sending Grimlock crashing into the trees nearby.

Wheeljack stood his ground in amazement. He had only read about the Dinobot’s existence so far and was intrigued as to how the Allspark gave life to such a primitive yet potent fighting force. He had been tasked to study them by the Science Council and he had every intention of doing so. His processor had been running varying levels of scans since their encounter and even now in the midst of the fighting he continued running them.

“Get off your rear fender Wheeljack!” Jazz could spare no time when the second Dinobot screeched into the skies. Despite his best efforts to dodge, Jazz managed only to narrowly avoid the fire balls that Swoop spat from the safety of the skies. He turned on the defensive and knocked a few to the side with this nunchaku.

Sari engaged Swoop sending bristling blue energy into the winged Dinobot’s frame. “Come here you overgrown chicken!” Sari sent off a silent wish that she had a mute option on her helmet’s audio receptors as Swoop’s sonic screech pierced her ears.

Wheeljack slowly got to his feet catching Jazz as Grimlock knocked the white Autobot his way. “Woah!” Wheeljack winced upon impact and fell backwards sliding several meters back. The dirt and dust settled with Wheeljack helping Jazz back onto his feet. The Autobot scientist realized that there was little hope unless he stepped up.

Jazz wiped the leaves off his face and looked to his side. “You willing to help or what?”

Wheeljack quickly nodded.

“Cool.”
==========
Ratchet’s headlights illuminated the dark indigo Decepticon vessel’s hull as the two Autobots sped along the rocky surface of the moon. Ratchet felt his internal combustion engine turn when the shadow of the highest peak of the ship engulfed the two miniscule explorers.

“This ship…” stuttered Arcee studying the glyphic markings that appeared thanks to Ratchet’s light.

“Warship,” corrected Ratchet. “It’s a command vessel, commanded by none other than Megatron himself.”

The two Autobots transformed and inspected the deep gash in the side of the ship’s armour. Ratchet lifted out his right arm and switched to a laser cutting tool. Upon completing, Ratchet dug both hands into the widened gash and plied the metal plates apart creating an adequate entrance.

Arcee stepped in first and carefully treaded across the large chamber. “Affirmative, most definitely a command vessel… But that of Megatron’s?” The intelligence officer continued to make her way into the labyrinth of purple followed closely by Ratchet.

“What do you mean…”

Ratchet was interrupted by Arcee holding her hand back. The duo crept slowly from the shadows into the main chamber. Hallow and abandoned, there was nothing much left in the bridge. Nothing but wreckage and dozens of tears into the ship’s armour, tears due to the requirement of materials for the compilation of three Omega Supreme clones.

“Someone’s been here…” whispered Arcee turning three hundred sixty degrees.

“How do you know?”

Arcee waved her empty palm around in a semi circle. “The hollowness of this chamber indicates that a many things have been stolen.”

“Elaborate.”

“A command vessel bridge would be decorated with command consoles. None of which are present.”

Ratchet gave Arcee a suspicious optic. The detective aspect of her nature was a sure surprise. But he decided to give her a chance and logged into the archival data that he had of Decepticon command ships. Sure enough she was correct; there were a great many ordinances that were missing. “How do you know that they were stolen though? The Cons are known for their infighting, could have just destroyed their own gear in their madness.”

“True,” noted Arcee following up her investigation. She led Ratchet over to a tear in the ship wall. Crouching down, Arcee lifted some wires in her hands and held them to Ratchet’s optic.

“Could’ve been severed in their madness.”

Arcee shook her head. “No, these cables and wires have been disconnected. Someone took the care to separate them instead of simply severing them.” She stood back up and took one last glance around her surroundings. “There’s one more clue that puts this whole thing up to theft.”

Ratchet’s optic raised a mechanical brow in growing curiosity. “Oh yeah? And what’s that?”

Arcee stepped aside revealing the majestic moon’s scenery beyond the gash in the chamber. She pointed outwards to the ground. Surely enough the moon’s surface had been gouged into with deep tracks. “Normally bots would just attribute it to tread mode Decepticons, but note the depth.” Arcee took a careful step over the boundary between ship’s walls. “But the gouge is deep enough to suggest that heavy materials have been transferred this way.”

Ratchet once again followed the pink detective. The duo walked a few meters away from the ship noting the tracks stopping entirely. “An evac vehicle or transport?”

Arcee nodded. “That’s the only explanation I can come up with. This definitely adds to the list of growing problems.”

“Most definitely. With the theft of the Destronium and the other instance…” groaned Ratchet. He rubbed his forehead with the tips of his digits while contemplating what connection the recent turn of events possibly had. He looked up. “Arcee, contact…”

Before Ratchet had the opportunity to complete his sentence, Arcee’s frame came colliding into his. The two Autobots tumbled to the ground and rolled off to the side. An explosion went off where they once stood as Ratchet lifted his head to catch sight of it.

“Die Autobots!” roared a blue jet that transformed mid-air and hovered about while firing his null cannons.
==========
“We’re going to set the whole island on fire if this keeps up!” shouted Sari evading the slashes from Swoop’s wing blades. She ducked her head and sent another burst of energy at the Dinobot before retreating backwards. “Whose bright idea was it to come here again?”

Jazz ignored the last comment and transformed to vehicle mode and rushed away from Grimlock’s snapping jaws. “C’mon faster Wheeljack! This guy is giving my fender a run for its money!” He scanned the digital map downloaded into his hard drive and transmitted the data to Wheeljack. “Sari is right, we need to reach the harbour. Otherwise we’re toast – literally.”

The trio sped through the forest towards the bay with the Dinobots following closely behind. Jazz was the first to transform followed by Wheeljack as the two giant robots sank their feet into the sand.
“Trippy!” Jazz’s processor connected an idea and a smile grew across his face. “Lure the Dinobots in, we’ll trap them here!”

Sari caught onto the idea and ascended into the sky. “Gotcha!” Swoop came directly at her with talons at the ready. Sari decided to wait until the last possible moment when she flew towards the water luring the Dinobot after her.

Grimlock waded into the beach wobbling with each step. Jazz and Wheeljack coordinated their movement to pull the beast further and further into the water. Unleashing a fury of flames, Jazz could only smile as his plan came into place.

“You ready to finally put your tools to good use?”

Wheeljack’s arms retracted and out popped two welding torches. “I’m positive, at your command.” The science officer received a nod of approval and ignited the torches. He redirected his fuel lines to feed the fire and an inferno came spewing from his arms.

The added flames from Wheeljack and Grimlock produced a massive heat wave. Uncertain whether or not they could sustain such a sudden elevation in temperature, Jazz kept the temperature gage on monitor until the water around them reached boiling point. The heated water evapourated into gas and created a fog of war.

Jazz was relieved, there was no way the Dinobots could see them now. With the aid of Sumdac’s satellites the Autobots could track their Dinobot foes allowing them to evade their line of sight. “Alright Autobots, let’s retreat!” commanded Jazz over the intercom.
==========
Ratchet and Arcee ran for cover. Their twin clone attackers had the advantage, without any backup, Ratchet knew they were doomed. They had received a distress signal from Jazz’s group earlier, but they couldn’t attend to it. There only seemed to be one option left and he didn’t like it.

“Arcee!” shouted Ratchet over the noise of the null ray fire.

Arcee moved her head towards Ratchet to catch the medic’s words.

“I’ll take care of this. I need you to move back and secure the space bridge connection point. We can’t let those two make their way to Earth, you understand?”

Arcee nodded but couldn’t hide the worry in her system. “But… how will you survive?”

“Don’t mind me. I may have one leg in the rust pile but I’ve got more than a few tricks up my sleeve. Now go!”

Ratchet moved out of the hiding spot to draw the Decepticon fire as Arcee made her getaway. He made sure that Arcee was out of sensor range before making his direct assault on the twin Decepticons.

“Listen up ya clowns! Unfortunately it’s in my programming to do this – but surrender now or I’ll have to blast ya!” Ratchet hoped that they would go for the surrender option but deep down in his hard drive he knew by experience that they wouldn’t, so he charged up his EMP.

“Maybe we should… I don’t think this Autobot is lying!” exclaimed the cowardly black coloured Starscream clone. He whimpered a bit before being pushed aside by the more brutish and bluish clone.

“Puhh-lease!” The blue clone cackled looking down at the lone Autobot medic. “This third rate excuse for an Autobot is no match for me. Maybe for you, but not I!”

Ratchet groaned and fired his EMP at the blue self-pontificator and then fired at the coward. He retracted the EMP into his arm and pulled out two stasis cuffs from his back compartment. He strode over to the downed Decepticons and put them into stasis lock.
==========
Wheeljack sat down in the comfort of his own chair and made sure that his room was sealed. He carefully logged onto the main Cybertronian network and secured a frequency. Making sure the signal was untraceable he dialed in.

“This is Wheeljack, requesting line ARC84.”

The Autobot waited a few clicks until the light went green noting that the connection had been made.

“Scans were successful, they exceed my every expectation. I am transmitting the data to you now. However, there is one more thing that has come to my attention – something that intrigues me much more than these Dinobots. It is concerning the human named Sari Sumdac. She was excluded from all reports from Earth.”

The audio device crackled as a voice came over in plain talk. “Tell me more.”

 

Oooooo, now we have a mystery voice. Jack can't be a traitor, can he? Or could it be somesuper secret science project manager, who has no qualms about "studying" the girl?

 

Actually there is a clue about who the "mysterious" character is. Something about the way he talks, no big secret about that but definitely going to give an insight into his character and his interests. One of my goals in this project is to build upon what the Animated team has carved out for us while making extensions where I find it necessary. Going to try to introduce a few new characters but not many that will drastically change the course of the story. A long due update, thanks to the first wave of midterms letting up. Enjoy!

Episode 5#: Unexpected Outing

The Autobot craft rocked back and forth. Optimus Prime grasped both of the arm rests on his command chair tightly. “What’s the situation?” The ship rumbled once more causing the screens around him to flicker.

Hot Shot struggled to keep the immense ship stable. “They’re raining down heavily on us sir…” retorted Hot Shot through his teeth from the pilot’s console. He punched in a few keys and then brought the ship upward. “Ironhide! How about knocking those Decepticons out of the skies?”

Ironhide’s face appeared on the view-screen. His optics furrowed with intensity. Without looking towards the camera that captured the live feed, Ironhide rattled the cannon he was operating. “No good Hot Shot! The Cons have us outnumbered! And their using smaller crafts which are much more agile and thus evading Brawn and I!”

Optimus shut his optics and braced himself as the ship violently shook again. A rather large barrage of firepower had impacted the side of the ship causing quite a bit of a disturbance. “What’s the status of the other ship?”

Red Alert checked the messages from the communication’s console. “They’ve got a hull breach in sector seven. Guidance systems failing! Their shields are doing a major fade!” Her saddened face looked up from the monitors to give Optimus the final story. “They’re going down…”

Optimus grit his teeth and decided to do what was necessary. “Follow them.”

“What?” Hot Shot nearly stood up from his station over the commotion. “This is ridiculous; we’re a flag ship not a battle cruiser!”

Optimus shook his head. “No, they’re our allies and we need to protect them by whichever means. Red Alert relay a message to Cybertron with a request for backup. Fill Ironhide and Brawn in on our course of action, I want them to direct their fire to intercepting the shots, not attacking the assault armada. Hot Shot, turn the ship around and achieve planet fall. We’re going to shield the Axalon during entry.”

“Can we even do that?”

“Maybe, maybe not, but we’re going to take the chance. Our hull integrity is still at the point where we can sustain heavy fire and survive a re-entry. With our long range plasma weapons still intact, as long as we find a source of energon we can defend ourselves from the ground.” Optimus heaved his chest out and convinced himself once more that this was the best course of action. They could spend another megacycle or two fighting it out in space hoping for reinforcements but in the end, they’d share the same fate as the Axalon.

Red Alert and Hot Shot complied despite their own reservations towards Optimus’ latest command. Hot Shot turned the craft around to give Ironhide and Brawn an easier time with the weapon systems. He hesitated for a moment but put his trust into what he was about to do and rotated out the external armour flaps. The flaps slowed the descent into the planet’s atmosphere but at the same time provided more cover to the rapidly falling Axalon beneath.

Decepticon fighters too stubborn to turn back were pulled into the planet’s gravitational pull. Without any shots from the Autobot ships, they grew into glowing balls of molten metal due to the inability to put up with the massive heat build up. A few of the other attackers had the good sense to stay out of the gravity well and fired away at the Autobot ships at their leisure hoping to make sure that there were no survivors upon crashing.

Optimus sat tight in his chair along with the other two crew members on the bridge. He kept the visual of the Decepticon menace on his left monitor and the status of the Axalon on the right monitor. They were descending quickly and while everything was going ok at the moment, he noticed the rupture on the Axalon’s back thruster grow until the screen was swallowed by bright light.

“What’s their situation?”

Red Alert quickly went to access the data feed. She shook her head in
frustration trying to get something to report back with. “I’m not sure. Transmissions with the Axalon have gone dead. From what our computer can understand is that their trajectory has been altered.”

Optimus winced at the thought of casualties. “Hot Shot, any chance of landing near them?”

“Negative. We’re too far into re-entry and with the damage to our ship there’s no telling what will happen to our structural integrity at this temperature with a sudden violent change in direction and momentum.”

“Alright then, brace for landing!”
==========
Ironhide and Brawn came running on the bridge only to find the doors sealed. Ironhide hammered his fists on the doors trying to get the computer to open them but it became clear to him that the system had gone offline. Brawn stepped up and rammed his fingers into the crevice and flayed the doors open allowing access to the command center.

“Every bot ok?” Ironhide whipped out the fire extinguisher putting out the multiple fires that had crept over the computer consoles. He rushed from fire to fire putting them out until he came to the knocked over frame of Hot Shot. “Hey, buddy! Hot Shot! You online?”

Hot Shot groaned and turned his head slowly. “I’m never deploying flaps again during re-entry…” He forced a smile before noticing his frame rising from the ground.

Ironhide smiled as he sat his friend back on his chair. He scanned his comrade over to make sure there were no serious injuries. “You’ll live. Sit tight buddy.” He rushed over to Optimus and helped his commander off the ground. “You alright?”

Optimus nodded and thanked Ironhide. He stood up on his own and surveyed the state of the bridge. Luckily Red Alert was online too with minimal damage from the crash. Brawn had seen to making sure she was ok.

“Are we able to establish contact with the Axalon?” Optimus Prime knew that their best chances of survival on this alien world were to group up with the other Autobot crew. The other reason was to make sure that their crew was intact as well.

“Negative. Our communications are down now and we’d have to assume theirs are still from my own frequency scans. But their beacon is still active which is less than I can say about ours. I’ve got them tracked on the sensors. I can have them downloaded if you require them.”

“Please do.” Optimus gave each of his weary crew members a look. “Alright Autobots arm yourselves. We’re unsure what native life-forms maybe on this planet and we’re going to be doing a little exploring.”

“You can’t be serious!” shouted Ironhide who realized he was standing right next to his commander before toning down. He apologized and then pointed out the main view-screen which had collided into the branches of a rather large tree. “This slaggin’ planet is organic! There could be real dangers out there! Real dangers!”

“There’s nothing wrong with organic worlds,” assured Optimus reminding himself that there was a certain stigma amongst Cybertronians towards those that are biological in general. The crew for the most part had never come into contact with any organics and while he knew the dangers firsthand of stepping onto an organic world they had to. “Look we’ll be prepared for anything out there ok? Without communications – we’re stranded. While we’ve sent a distress signal to Cybertron, who knows how long it’ll be till they get here. And without our beacon online, the only way for the search party to find us, they’ll head to the Axalon.”

Ironhide grunted, giving into his commander’s words. He longed to return to Cybertron and feared the unknown that existed beyond the safety of the ship’s metal walls. “Then sir, permission to access the ship’s armoury?”

Optimus rolled his optics over the comment and suppressed his urge to sigh. “Granted.”
==========
Far above in the overgrowth of leaves a black shelled insect peered through with its vividly crimson optics. It sighted a group of five Autobots leaving from the lower hatch of the blue ship. Led by a red and blue figure, the detection sent up a flag in the cerebral processor. It zoomed up following the other Autobots but focused once more on the red and blue individual.

Keeping an optic on the departing Autobots, a scan over the entire ship was carried out. Three Decepticon signatures flagged another subroutine in the observer’s processor. He decided to engage a secondary more intensive scan but was cut short as the ship raised its protective force shield.

“Interesting… more test dummies for the…” muttered the observer to himself.

“Anything to report, report?” A sleek stag beetle ruffled its wings and retracted them while sharing the perch with the locust.

The first insect used its powerful hind legs to push the newcomer off the branch. “Buzz off ya fragger! I will let the mistress know of our new arrivals.” Watching his companion spread his wings, the locust leapt several meters away onto the next branch then doing the same over and over leaving the stag beetle behind.
==========
Optimus lifted the branch out of his way and pushed forward. He could hear the muttering of Ironhide and easily detected the disdain in Brawn lingering behind the group.

“The prisoners are all secured?”

Hot Shot took a few clicks to realize the question had been poised at him. He saved the image of the jungle scenery he had been admiring earlier to peruse at a later time. “Oh, yea… They’re locked up good. They won’t be causing us any trouble especially with that force field running.”

“Good, one less thing to worry about,” thought Optimus while scanning the foreign terrain ahead of him. He climbed over some rocks making sure to have good footing for there was much moss covering the rocks.

Hot Shot followed closely eager to explore the planet. “Say Optimus, are there any similarities between this world and Earth?” He turned around to help Red Alert climb over the rocks.

Optimus smiled at the sight of such camaraderie. He halted at the peak and gazed towards the farthest reaches of his optics. “Somewhat. So far what we’ve encountered is similar to what humans call jungles. I’ve never been there myself but from what I’ve downloaded on Earth the flora and biodiversity are quite similar to Earth’s jungles.”

Red Alert tapped Optimus on the shoulder to grab his attention. She hesitantly pointed over at the bottom of the rocky elevation. “Is that a species you have on Earth?”
==========
Far below, Brawn had been trapped part way into the mouth of a large green creature. The diminutive Autobot was attempting to rip apart the creature’s flesh but the armour like hide prevented any real damage. Ironhide was in the air battering down on the vines with his hardened fists. Without any luck, Brawn was devoured by the creature as it turned its attention to the next course of its meal.

“Definitely not!” yelled Optimus grabbing for his axe. “Plants don’t eat robots, not the last time I checked anyway.” He dashed down the rocks preparing to hack down the monstrous attacker. “Red Alert, see if you can electrocute it – organic systems use electrical signals to transmit messages organ to organ. If possible we can cause it to regurgitate Brawn!”

Hot Shot landed nearby Optimus and whipped out his pyrotechnic tools. “What about me boss?”

“Negative Hot Shot. I don’t want to risk a forest fire breakout. Stay back and let me handle this.” Optimus’ faceplate shielded his visage while racing into the fray. He swung his battle axe into the monster plant’s side. Unable to make an incision, Optimus pulled back and sent a more powerful swing with the thruster aflame.

The monster screeched through its large bell head and lashed out with its vines. Watching the cause of its pain fly away, the plant changed its attention to the second part of its meal and tossed the now silver armoured Autobot into the nearest tree.
==========
“Red Alert, attend to Ironhide. Make sure he’s ok!” Optimus re-boosted his axe and swung again. Clearly the attack was having some affect on the plant. Loading the data he collected from Earth, the closest living organism he had on hard disk were some of the carnivorous plants but there was no indication where the equivalent of its stomach would be. Deduction was all that was left. Optimus swung downwards tracing what seemed like a logical location for his comrade to end up.

Hot Shot couldn’t take it anymore and decided to jump back into the action. The warrior hoisted himself over the cover he had been using and rushed into the attacking plant, knocking one of its vines away from his commander.

“Looks like you could use some help!”

Optimus silently thanked Hot Shot but knew that this plant was more than they could handle. Having already disabled two of his soldiers and displaying a significant immunity to most of their attacks, getting out of this functional was unlikely.

“Get back, we need to get Brawn out before he gets digested!”

Hot Shot evaded the lunging vine and wore a startled visage. “Digested? What’s that?”

Optimus too jumped off the ground to avoid getting carried away by the vine. “Trust me, you don’t want to know.” Before Optimus could elaborate, the two Autobots were sent flying with the plant racing underneath. “Wha?”
==========
The two Autobots were slapped back down to the ground as the plant toyed with them in the air. Crashing several kilometers from their original position, Red Alert magnified on their position.

“Are… they alright doc?” Ironhide weakly lifted his head trying to ascertain the fate of his comrades.

Red Alert detected their movement through her enhanced optic sensors and nodded. “For now. But I’m still detecting Brawn’s energy signature from within that monster. Judging on some of the more potent organic solvents in my databanks, I don’t think his armour can withhold much longer.”

Ironhide used his good arm to push Red Alert gently away from him. “Go help them, I’ll be fine on my own for now.” He noted how Red Alert didn’t take him seriously and frowned. “Seriously, I’ll be ok!”

Red Alert acknowledged and stood up. She reached up and ripped off large branches with leaves and concealed Ironhide’s frame beneath them. “Stay out of sight alright? Who knows whatelse is lurking on this planet…”

Ironhide squeezed an uneasy smile as he activated his armour plating. “Will do doc, just get back quick.” He watched Red Alert jolt in the direction Optimus Prime, Hot Shot and that plant had gone off in, then frowned again. “I hope these leaves aren’t oxidizing to my armour…”
==========
Hot Shot jammed his super heated cutting tools as far into the plant as possible as an anchor. He winced and turned his head as some organic juices splattered over his helmet. “Slag… I’m going to need an oil bath after this!”

Optimus noted the opportunity and with the monstrous fiend anchored into place, he raised the axe over his head and smashed it into the plant’s gut. He roared as the axe thruster ignited causing the blade to cut deeper into the plant’s hide. “Almost... there!” Using both arms, Optimus pulled the axe towards him to enlarge the wound.

The plant turned and tossed in pain only intensifying its screeching. It wrapped a vine around Hot Shot and yanked the thorn out of its side. The flailing plant tightened its grip on Hot Shot to halt him from retaliating. With one Autobot out of the way, the plant proceeded to turn its attention to Optimus Prime.

Hot Shot felt his frame collapse inwards but forced himself to maintain optic view of what was going on. “Optimus…” He mustered what strength he could to push his flame-torches out and ignited the vine that was rushing towards Optimus. Causing the plant more pain, Hot Shot’s vision went blank just as he caught sight of Red Alert emerging from the thicket. “Optimus… Red Alert… she’s… behind…”

Optimus jammed his fist into the plant’s entrails and pulled out Brawn whom was barely functional. He pulled the tiny Autobot out in one swift yank. “Hey… you alright?”

Brawn nodded and tried to contort a smile which was made difficult by the slime he was covered in. His teeth showed as the face formed a mouth. “Bout time…”

Optimus smiled and detected Red Alert’s energy signature behind him. “Catch!” He threw Brawn over his shoulder into the waiting arms of the team’s medic and jumped to avoid another attempt to capture him.

“Hot Shot!” Optimus’ call prompted no response and knew his friend would soon be offline if not already. He jumped from the plant’s moving base to a higher vine to launch his projectile grappling hooks. By yanking with enough force, the vine that clutched Hot Shot came crashing down. Optimus Prime retracted the hooks and pulled out his axe. With a rapid whirl he sliced the vine off releasing the captured Autobot.

Red Alert rested Brawn on the trunk of a tree before getting up again and dashed to attend to Hot Shot. She picked up the yellow warrior and slung his left arm over her shoulder to help walk Hot Shot over to Brawn. Turning her head to check on Optimus, her optics widened in fear.

“Optimus!” screamed Red Alert.

Optimus crashed into the ground and was constricted by a vine waiting below. He was then hoisted into the air as another vine lashed out and secured him. Red Alert was whisked off her feet when a vine came out of nowhere grabbing her, Hot Shot and Brawn. The four Autobots had been captured and were rushed into the air.

Red Alert glanced around in all directions and then noticed that the vine that captured her had not come from nowhere – but from another plant. She scanned the area below her, detecting four monster plants in total. “Looks like it invited its friends… Any bright ideas commander?”

Optimus wriggled and tried to break free but to no avail the multiple vines had created a bonding case that prevented any escape. The Autobot commander refused to give up trying but knew ultimately that with more enemies below them, the chances of survival had dropped drastically. He was hesitant to say no, but could not cause his crew anymore panic.

The thickets below shook violently, Red Alert feared more plants. There most definitely were not enough of them to go around. However to her surprised an ordinance blasted out and blew up the vines holding Optimus and his crew.

A black robot emerged from the green shrubbery followed by a sleek yellow robot carrying high caliber weapons on their arms. On the other side of the battlefield, two more robots emerged armed with weapons similar to those by the first two robots.

“Well, looks like we got here just in time!” announced the smaller of the two new comers. He cracked a grin and retargeted his weapon at the plant tapping his finger lightly on the trigger. “What does that make us?”

“Heroes?” postulated his larger green buddy arching one of his metallic brows upwards.

The small bronze and silver robot smiled and laughed all the while keeping his weapon trained on the menaces before them. “Ain’t we just.”

 

Got back into a bit o the writing recently so I finished this long overdue update. This is a three part-er with this small mission coming to a conclusion next episode. Gonna have to do some jumping between the two major story threads of Earth and following Optimus - it'll be an interesting challenge but I'm going to do my best to keep it engaging. I think I can get off a few more stories before waiting for the Allspark Almanac 2 for some more inspiration so you may expect a lull again once more. But anyways enjoy =)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Episode 6#: Maximal Militia

Ordinances spiraled in every direction eradicating the monstrous plants that had struck such terror into the sparks of the four injured Autobots lying on the ground. However, Optimus could not help but note the destructive capabilities of the newcomers. He shut his optics hoping to wait the massacre out. When he once again opened them, he found the four robots standing tall before him with the lead black robot’s arm extended towards him.

The black robot smiled, his blue optics reassuring Optimus of safety. Without any reservations, he grabbed Optimus’ hand firmly and pulled the red commander up from the ground. “Excuse Rattrap" A sarcastic smile crawled across his face. "He can be a bit over dramatic. But from the looks of it, we got here in the nick of time.”

“Primal I presume?” asked Optimus nodding to thank the crew that had saved their sparks. He stood tall once again exchanging a smile of gratitude and inspected the new crew of Autobots that had saved their skid-plates.

Primal nodded to confirm Optimus’ question. He helped another of Optimus’ team up as his own team moved about to set up a small base of operations. “Yours truly. Uhh you’ve already met Rattrap our specialist. He’s off setting up a perimeter; you never know what sorta trouble we’ll run into on an organic planet. That’s our repair and tech-bot, Rhinox who’s setting up a portable diagnostic and regeneration station. And finally our scout and pilot, Cheetor who went to retrieve Ironhide.”

Optimus sat down on one of the emptied crates and watched Rhinox help Red Alert and Hot Shot into the medical setups that Primal had described earlier. With a simple nod, Optimus acknowledged it. “Looks like you’ve got a fine crew.”

“Couldn’t wish for a better one,” agreed Primal pulling out a small data pad from his waist holster. He punched in a command to bring up virtual displays then started writing up a log of the incident. "I'll take care of the reports for this one if you don't mind."

Hot Shot relaxed as the automated repair station patched him up. As he took a look around, he couldn't help but let his curiosity get the better of him. “Umm aren’t Elite Guard crews mandated to have five minimum?”

Rhinox looked over his shoulder as he helped the more heavily damaged Brawn into a larger regeneration module. “One of ours is currently on leave, but we’re a special access group. Given clearance by Ultra Magnus himself to continue operating even with the loss of one.”

“Special access huh? Well that explains the destructive weaponry. Hard pressed to believe Autobots would be carrying around weapons like that!”

Optimus gave Hot Shot a glare only to be gestured to sit back down by Primal. The other Autobot commander simply smiled and eased the tension. “It’s perfectly alright, we run into this question quite often out here when we encounter other Autobots. We operate under the Maximal initiative.”

“Maximal?” Optimus’ face created a puzzled look. He had only recently become a fully fledged Elite Guard commander and been granted permission to access archives that were previously off limits. Even with the massive amounts of resources granted to him, many data-tracks were still off limits to him, perhaps this was one of them.

Rhinox got up from his job and dusted his hands off. “The Maximal initiative is a program that was initiated to give us an edge against the Decepticons.” Receiving a nod of approval from his commander, he lifted up his right arm and hit a small switch. “Allow me to demonstrate.” He angled them higher and looked towards the other Autobots. "All I have to do is say the activation code. Maximize!" The arm rotated and the panels contorted to form a chain gun. “With that comes access to a host of weapons. Although Autobots aren’t normally outfitted with weapons of this level of firepower, we’re one of the first. They’re experimental but you can’t argue with the results.”

“Where do you think Ultra Magnus gets all his weapons?” Rattrap’s voice beaconed over the crowd as the small Maximal holstered a pistol in his right hand. He walked and set down some of his gear before continuing. “Hey big banana, all clear.”

“Good work Rattrap. Alright bots, start packing up. We’ll give Optimus and his crew a few more cycles to heal up plus wait for Cheetor to report in.”

Rattrap scratched the side of his helmet shaking loose some dirt. He checked his internal chronometer and a bug came up. “Umm… wasn’t the kid supposed to check in awhile ago?”
==========
Cheetor tumbled to his side absorbing minor damage. He rolled and narrowly avoided a blast of acidic slime, then continued to roll. “Not good, not good!” The yellow Autobot stumbled and walked back with his hands then transformed into his land cruiser mode. Gaining much needed maneuverability, Cheetor escaped the next few subsequent attacks. Keeping his rear fender safe, he maintained his search for Ironhide but nothing was coming up.

Another organic slime projectile landed near Cheetor’s tires causing the Autobot car to swerve into some bushes. The attacker materialized before the Autobot vehicle startling him.

"Not gonna bury this bot online!" Cheetor kicked into reverse and headed full throttle away from the danger before him. The Cybertronian suddenly felt his rear bumper sink before coming to realization of the trap he had rushed into. With his wheels immobilized in the mud, Cheetor was sitting still. "Frag..."

Two large mandibles swept across and knocked the Autobot off its wheels. Thinking he was out of the situation, Cheetor performed a mid-air transformation in an attempt to fight back. By leaping into the air, another threat caught his legs and tossed him into the air like a rag doll.

Cheetor's sensors couldn't recognize the dangers but his optical sensors locked onto the threats. "Maximize!" With the shout of the activation code, two panels lifted from Cheetor's back and produced concealed quasar cannons and fired away. The eager Autobot blinked and rechecked his optics. The beast's armour easily took the energy. Cheetor couldn't believe the second time he saw it and squeezed off another couple bursts.

The Autobot warrior could do little to stop his fall and became immobilized as his legs were crushed under the pressure. Groaning and unable to understand how his foes bested the weaponry, the last thing Cheetor saw was the foot of the large six legged creature stomp down on his head.

"Aside! He's mine!" The first aggressor swatted the goon away with a charged kick. The large insect screeched with a victorious call then proceeded to pummel the downed Autobot into submission.

The large six legged creature didn't take kindly to his compatriot's action and swung back with his own attack, sweeping the proud insect off its feet. "Bombshell! I'll rip your optics out!"

A buzzing thundered overhead. In one fell swoop, the giant beetle transformed and stepped between the two bickering bugs. "Enough! Or I'll reduce you both to scraplets..." It eyed each contestant to impose his authority, eventually the two saw to it to be wise by backing off. "The other has been secured, and the trail is still hot, we should leave before things get complicated."

"Then we can get back to the fun! If anything comes to bother us, we'll just do what we did to this bot! Geez! What a buzzkill Shrapnel..."

The prostrate Transformer cocked an optic. "No, the mistress demands our return. And return we shall, we must prepare for the guests." He motioned for Bombshell to pick up the downed Autobot.
==========
Scorch marks littered the organic scenery of the forest. Bits of scrap metal and shells buried half way into the soil, but no real remains decorated the ground. While suspicious of any local life able to incur such damage, there was no proof of any other Cybertronian on the planet. The Autobots had turned to their scanning equipment in hopes of ascertaining the truth.

"If they're still functional... we should be getting an energy signature right?" asked Hot Shot as each of the bots recalibrated their internal sensor arrays. He punched in a few keys and tried his but again, no reading.

Rhinox nodded as he tried a higher altitude to scan for their missing comrades. "The only explanation would be if they were offline." The green giant looked to his commander grimly. "Shall we pursue?"

Primal ran the possibilities in his processor. As much as he didn't want to believe it, he had to face the facts. "Alright Rhinox, call it in. Switch our priorities to the recovery of our ship..."

"No," disagreed Optimus.

"What do you mean? The readings are simply not there!"

Optimus reassured Rattrap and looked to Primal for support. "Listen, there is a possibility that their signatures are being masked. Actually there are a couple possibilities."

"Go on," urged Primal with the rest of both crews listening intently.

Optimus nodded in thanks for the opportunity to speak as equals. "Firstly, if they're underground. Carbon deposits can block out any reading of energy signatures." He decided to pause as the other bots considered the info and acknowledged it. "The second is well, the use of a signal dampener."

"Well surely if such a thing existed, I'd know about it," postulated Rhinox carefully.

Optimus raised a finger and enlightened both crews, "Well actually if anyone read my report on Earth, the Decepticons actually managed such a feat. Which leads us to our advantage in this case. If my suspicions are right, then we could actually reverse the signal and track down the source of all the trouble.

"I will download this from the info-core and begin immediately. But I will need access to equipment and a strong enough sensory array. Unfortunately, ours was damaged in the crash."

Primal acknowledged the change in direction of their plans. Reacting quickly, he prioritized and reallocated the resources quickly. "Rattrap, I don't want to waste any time - so I will require your tracking expertise. Do what you can with what you have, if you find anything beam us immediately."

"Righto boss monkey!"

Primal changed his attention to Optimus. "What is the status of your vessel?"

"Intact, our sensory array is functional just communications are down." retorted Optimus inspired by Primal's ability to command so quickly.

"Optimus, may I ask that you lead the remainder of the crew to your vessel? Meanwhile, Rhinox and I will return to the Axalon to pick up any spare equipment we can to repair your communications system to keep in touch with Rattrap."

"Of course, let's move out Autobots!" heralded Optimus receiving approval from both crews.

Primal gave Rhinox a nod. "Primal Prime, flight mode!" The large Autobot transformed and twin jet engines extended from his backside. He grabbed Rhinox's arm and ignited the jets then took into the skies.

As the two Autobots took flight, Optimus couldn't help but notice the difference between himself and Primal. Even in the heat of a situation where they had an unknown enemy, missing crew members and on a planet they'd never been on - Primal had the capacity to instruct so rapidly and confidently. Something Optimus would note as something to work on.
==========
"Hot Shot, you ok back there?" Optimus aided Brawn over the next few hurdles. The thick overgrowth of the jungle was not helping in shortening their travel time. Suddenly something came over Optimus' audio sensors. He halted and put his hand up clenching his fist signaling for the troops to hold position.

"What's goin' on?" queried Hot Shot bumping into Red Alert.

Optimus held still again. The faint sound rose in decibels and he isolated its familiarity in his memory databanks. "Down!" The sound became audible for all of the Autobots as the clear buzz was deafening. Optimus grabbed Brawn's shoulder and pulled him down to the ground as a large insect swooped down from above narrowly piercing Brawn's head with its stinger.

Brawn's optics locked onto the aggressor immediately. "What in the name of the Allspark was that?"

Optimus activated his battle mask and prepared for action. He warded Brawn back with his free arm and prepared his grappling hook. "Not what... rather who! Wasp! What are you doing here?"

The large hornet flew straight and performed an aerial loop before swinging back for another attempt. "Name is Waspinator! Not WASP!" The deranged ex-Autobot fired explosive stingers that sent the ground forces running for cover. "Waspinator sick of this planet! Sick of fighting with she-spider! Sick of rain, sick of everything!"

Red Alert shielded her head from shrapnel and gave Optimus an uneasy look. "A few screws loose with this one huh?"

"You think?" exclaimed Hot Shot showing Red Alert where a piece of shrapnel had dug into his side armour. "How long do you think it'll take Cybertron Service to issue a replacement part this time?"

Red Alert held her arm out and produced a stasis tool. "Hold still, I'll remove it to the best of my ability. But emphasis on still, any sudden movements may cause it to detonate."

Brawn swung out of the way as the deranged fugitive tried to ram into him. Unfortunately his injuries were still evident and could not perform to the best of his ability. Catching the medical procedure that was going on in the corner of his optic, Brawn knew it was up to him to keep whatever attention this Decepticon had away from Red Alert and Hot Shot.

"Come here ya overgrown organic!" Brawn stood tall and readied his punching fist hoping his taunt would do the trick."

Waspinator transformed mid-air into robot mode gaining greater mobility. He flew towards Brawn and easily moved to the side evading the punch. As the momentum carried Brawn through, Waspinator spun around and grabbed the miniature Autobot. With little effort the bug took to the skies with his prisoner.

Optimus plant his foot into the ground and targeted Waspinator's beast mode appendages. With a whirl, the grappling hook shot out and latched onto Waspinator. With a forceful tug the Autobot pulled the duo closer to ground.

"Hold on Brawn! I'll get ya down!" He aimed again and fired his second grappler. With Brawn closer in sight, Optimus was able to latch his arm, with a second powerful yank he freed Brawn and caught the falling Autobot. The two fell back and smashed into some nearby rocks. Optimus groaned and helped Brawn off. "You alright?"

Brawn nodded. "Thanks," he said without reluctance.

"Ok Brawn, I'll take it from here. I'll trap him and you get the stasis cuffs ready. He may be a few diodes short of a full processor but his instability makes him all the more dangerous. So make sure to stay out of sight and when I give you the signal, you pounce alright?"

Optimus checked his scanners and took off running on the ground. While making sure he was still visible from the ground, he took easy notice that Waspinator was chasing him. When he was sure he was far away enough from the injured, he turned around. Readying his fist like Brawn did earlier, Optimus prepared to attempt a similar lure. "C'mon Wasp! What's wrong? Don't you want your revenge?"

Waspinator's optics narrowed with rage. "Die Autobot!" The Decepticon burst forward maintaining the same belief that Optimus had the same plan as Brawn. As he prepared to dodge the Autobot's punch, Optimus crossed both his arms outward and fired the grappling hooks.

"Gotcha!" With both angles covered, the hook wrapped around Waspinator's abdomen. But it would not be so easy as the mentally deranged Decepticon struggled violently and caused Optimus to be wrenched from the ground. "Hold still..." grunted Optimus.

"Let me go!" roared Waspinator.

Optimus pulled and pulled until Waspinator faced the grove of large trees. Ensuring that he lined up with the trunk of a large enough tree he sent Brawn the mental signal. "Whatever you say!" Optimus swung his axe and cut his own grappler cord. The sudden segmentation launched Waspinator flying into the trunk of a tree.

Destabilized even further Waspinator suddenly found his arms wrapped around his back and clamped with a pair of stasis cuffs. He craned his neck to find the stout Brawn standing over him with a look of contempt.

"Thanks Brawn," replied Optimus dusting himself off.

Brawn shook his head. "No, thank you. It was your plan that ensured his capture and the safety of our comrades. I'm sorry for all that I've done and not trusting in you earlier."

To Brawn's surprise, Optimus merely smiled. "No worries Brawn. I understand respect is something to be earned and I'm glad I've been able to do that. Now what do you say about getting back to the ship? Maybe we can stabilize this prisoner long enough to extract some useful information."
==========
"So there are Autobots on the planet?" Blackarachnia seemed amused by that notion but nothing too much to worry her. She received three eager nods from her subordinates - subordinates that she captured from crashed Decepticon ships and converted into monstrosities like herself. "Excellent work Bombshell, Shrapnel and Kickback... You have served me well, prepare the new prisoners for the next stage of my experiments."

"At once!" acknowledged Bombshell with delight.

"What animal shall we prepare... prepare?" stuttered Shrapnel rubbing his claws together in glee.

"I think it's time we tried something larger... perhaps something warm blooded..." cooed Blackarachnia inspecting her new play toys. She cracked a sinister smirk as an incoming alert was forwarded to her onboard computer. "Kickback, there seems to be a rodent on the front steps of our territory, please attend to it." Watching her minion leave she turned back to Bombshell. "Get me the cat..."

 

Episode 7#: A Bittersweet Reunion

"Slag!" Rhinox slammed his fist into the rail of the sensory transmitter in futility. He sped away in typing in commands but again no response. "I don't get it he just won't respond!"

Primal placed a hand on his comrade's shoulder to calm him down. "Don't worry, I'm sure Rattrap has it under control. It just makes our mission that much more dire. Thanks to you we have a semi-readjusted reading of Cheetor and Ironhide's energy signature. They're both bouncing off roughly the same location and Brawn's narrowed it down to a single sector."

"Exactly, which will make it all the much easier to find." Optimus and his crew joined in on the other Autobots. "We're just about ready to set foot into our search. We will find Rattrap and the others."

"I'm sorry, you're right, I need to stop worrying." Rhinox slumped his shoulders and looked over to the drive parts. "I'll get to the other repairs right away."

Primal nodded in thanks and received an ok from Optimus to do the briefing. "Alright Autobots, listen up! We've got two friends captured out there and quite possibly a third. Our rough intel has approximately eleven or so Decepticon energy signatures in and around that area. They're weak but that may just be due to the carbon deposits. So the odds are against us. Luckily for us we've got the element of surprise. Red Alert and Rhinox will remain here to effect repairs on this ship's flight capabilities. As soon as they're complete they will join us as backup. Wherever they're hiding, we'll give them enough incentive to come crawling out with the white flag. Sound good?"

"Yes sir!" announced the crew in unison.
==========
"Ah fer bootin' up cold!" Rattrap slashed at the overgrown locust with an impact knife only to be repelled by a powerful kick. The small Autobot rolled backwards and recovered on his two feet preparing for another attack. "Fast little bugger aren't ya? We'll see how fast you are when you're a few legs short!"

Rattrap waited for the insect to come pouncing over him in an attempt to keep him grounded. With a swift swing, Rattrap arched the blade slicing into the softer underbelly armor of the Decepticon.

Kickback screeched in horrible pain causing Rattrap to wince. It transformed and clenched its injuries. "I'll rip your optics out for that vermin!" Kickback readied his claws and shot out hoping to knife the Autobot with its sharp edges.

Rattrap parried with the single combat knife and simply laughed. "You have no idea how many times I've heard that one. Now what say you tell me your name so I can make a full report of this in my report?"

The Autobot's quips only further enraged the Decepticon. Missing for the last time, Kickback fell back and extended his insect appendages. With a single click they began to provide machine gun fire.

"Yow!" Rattrap stumbled and kept his feet moving to avoid being struck by the firepower. He transformed to his cycle mode and gained greater speed. With a couple passes Rattrap knew the Decepticon's rage had spent all of its projectile reserves. "Done?"

Surprised that his reserves had run out, Kickback stood still for a sudden unsure of what to do next. Without wasting the golden opportunity, Rattrap jumped out in robot mode and tackled the Decepticon to the ground. In retaliation, Kickback transformed back into insect mode in an attempt to escape.

"Not so fast bug boy!" Rattrap grappled the Decepticon and with one arm pulled out a pistol. Pushing the pistol head into the side of Decepticon's head he tapped the trigger a few times. "Now, I'm sure I don't have to explain to you what this is. But in case you're thinking of trying anything too tricky I've attached a charge to your blind spot. One misstep and kaboom!"

"You'll pay for this!"

Rattrap simply laughed at his poor indentured prisoner. "I've heard that one quite a lot too. Now for some reason my transmissions are being jammed... No doubt your handiwork. Take me to the jamming station and reveal the location of my friends or its bug juice everywhere."

Kickback reluctantly gave in and hopped away with a passenger on top.
==========
"Nothing but forest! How are we expected to find anything with nothing but trees in every direction?" The irritated Hot Shot threw his arms up for an instance and nearly lost his stability in the tree branches.

Primal considered a few possibilities but couldn't come up with anything. "Any suggestions Optimus? I've never really been on an organic world before, much less one covered in forest. If we're searching for a large carbon deposit, are there any markers we should keep an optic out for?"

"On a planet like this where all lifeforms are carbon? Essentially anywhere... but if I were to narrow it down, for that many Decepticons to hide relatively undetected... there would be little chance that they're on the surface."

"Underground mine like your report?" asked Hot Shot climbing down from the tree.

Optimus nodded. "It's very likely, if our culprit is who I think it is... they would know of Megatron's base setup and with his signal dampeners and evasion in general of scanner sweeps - an underground base would be most ideal." He considered the data he downloaded from Earth's libraries. "If that were the case, look for any depressions. As caves are generally rock, there are probably not as many tall trees growing around it especially if it's been in use lately."

"Who me?" asked Hot Shot pointing to himself. Receiving the nod from Optimus only made him grow a sign of concern. "But I just got down from that thing! Oh fine..." Grudgingly, Hot Shot complied and climbed to the top of the tree again." He engaged long range scanners and began looking for depressions. Scanning from left to right, Hot Shot went back for another sweep.

Suddenly Primal's wrist communicator began flashing. Startled, Primal instantly activated it.

"Come in, this is Rattrap reporting in!"

A look of comfort swept over Primal's face. "It's good to hear your voice again Rattrap, we thought we may have lost you. Didn't you get our transmissions? We've been trying to reach you for the last two megacycles!"

Laughter resonated from the intercom. "Ran into a little pest trouble and it seems as though the Cons on this planet have constructed a jamming station. I've taken care of it thanks to a little improvisation on my part. With this our beacon may yet break through to any nearby Autobot vessels for help."

"Good work Rattrap, any luck with finding the others?"

"Funny you should mention it, I'm standing on what appears to be the cavern opening to their underground lair. Kinda cliché don't cha think with the bugs hiding underground? Anyway I'm forwarding my location to you now."

"Thanks, stay low and wait for us to get there."

"No can do boss, there are Autobots in need of help down there!"

"Rattrap! For your sake no! That's an order!" No response came through as Primal deduced that Rattrap had severed the link. He turned to Optimus. "We've got their location, we're going to have to get going if we want to catch up."

"Right! Hot Shot, you hear that? We've got the location!" shouted Optimus.

Hot Shot threw his hands up in the air. "Oh man and I just found it too! Woah! Slag it all!" Losing stability once more, the eager cadet fell straight out of the tree. Hot Shot rubbed his cranium and rolled his optics. "I'm ok! Let's go!"

"Good, Autobots transform and roll out!" declared Primal leading the attack squadron towards Rattrap's signal.
==========
Optimus inspected the hole. While small, he could probably squeeze his way through but no way was Primal or Brawn with their broader frames. In a this scenario it would be just Hot Shot and himself at least until they made contact with Rattrap on the inside.

"Come to the same conclusion?" asked Primal peering over Optimus' shoulder.

Optimus got up and turned to face the others. "Affirmative. We'll set up a net, Hot Shot and I will go in and get the others. Stealth will be our advantage. If we run into any trouble, we'll require the rest of you to cover our fenders at least until Rhinox can get our ship up and running."

"Lead the way captain!"

Optimus steadily placed his hands on the side of the cavern opening and began to descend. As soon as he got into the darkness, he activated his truck headlights to illuminate the pathway. Hot Shot cranked his arms and then followed his commander into the potential Decepticon stronghold.

"Looks like Rattrap was right!" exclaimed Hot Shot finally getting the readings on his onboard computer. He tapped the side of his cranium as the transmission ended. He turned to Optimus with a serious face. "We're getting thirteen Decepticon energy signatures." He hit a small switch on his forearm to project a rough schematic of the area and the signals. "Fortunately for us they've gathered all in one place to save us the trouble."

Ignoring Hot Shot's attempt at humour, Optimus considered the few options left to him. "There seems to be one signal further away from the rest and significantly closer to us. Could you rescan it?"

Hot Shot complied and generated another signature reading. To his amazement the signature had changed position. He hit the scan once more. "Uhh Prime? I think that signature is getting closer... What should we do?"

"Arm yourself, get those igniters ready. We can't afford to blow our cover now..." Optimus took cover behind an outcrop of rocks. Pointing over to another bunch he motioned for Hot Shot to do the same. He then raised his hand and signaled the countdown for the approaching Decepticon.

The timer reached zero, Hot Shot shifted into action with both flamethrowers on the trigger. His shoulders relaxed and lowered his weapons. "For Spark's sake Rattrap! I would've slagged ya!" Turning to Optimus he pointed at Rattrap with his thumb. "Prime, you believe this bot? He's got a death wish!"

Relieved, Optimus agreed with Hot Shot. "What are you doing giving off a Decepticon energy signature? We almost..."

"Beat the slag outta me? Well no worries, I cuffed my prisoner and took some time to replicate a lil gizmo to mask my regular signature with a Con's. Makes sneaking through these tunnels easier especially if nobody is looking too closely." He held up a finger to pause his two comrades. He opened a compartment in his waist and pulled out two of the aforementioned gizmos. "Here. Put em on before the Cons realize we're here."

The two Autobots took the gifts and applied it to their frames. Optimus made a quick scan to ensure that their energy signatures had indeed been altered. "Good work Rattrap. Have you scouted any other parts of this subterranean base?"

"Was on my way down to the party."

"Then Ironhide and Cheetor are probably where the Cons are huh?" suggested Hot Shot.

Rattrap nodded. "So get your weapons ready for a slaggin' party!"

Optimus showed his disagreement by shaking his head. "No, even with your weapons could take on an armada of that size." He pointed to the path towards the subterranean cavern. "We'll do a classic two-prong. I'll head in the front and surprise them."

"At which point their focus will be completely on you and we'll come from the other side guns blazing!" announced Hot Shot cluing in on the plan. He looked to Rattrap getting a coinciding agreement.

Optimus put up his hand to stop the cadet's ideas from spiraling. "I will give them an opportunity to surrender first. If and only if they don't I'll swing in at which point you'll spring in and do the deed."
==========
Optimus made sure to hug the side of the tunnel wall. For a bunch of Decepticons they were being extremely quiet. Perhaps they were onto his plan, but Optimus couldn't risk it - there were two Autobot sparks on the line.

He swept into action and charged through the doorway with his axe ready. "Surr..." Optimus stood in disbelief, he felt his grip weaken around the battle axe. Forcing himself to speak he could only utter a few words. "Elita... what have you done?"

The scene in front of him shocked Optimus to the core of his spark. There it was the dozen or so Decepticon energy signatures they had scanned in various states of mutilation strewn across crudely built medical slabs. Various limbs transformed into organic parts and piles of even more failed experiments in a pile. The picture was obvious, Optimus knew it finally that Elita truly had crossed the line.

"Like what I've done with the place?" cackled Blackarachnia tossing an instrument aside. She confidently strode closer and closer to Optimus. "Look, I've realized there's no going back..." She smiled and dragged her index finger down the side of Optimus' face. "No going back to the way things were and no going back to the way I used to be."

Optimus shook himself free from his old comrade's embrace. "And you did this? Why Elita? Why?"

"So that you could join me of course!"

Optimus face turned from confusion to anger. He caught sight of Cheetor and Ironhide behind. Cheetor's form had already been subjected to the process. He was now covered in what he had learn to call fur. "What have you done? What..."

Blackarachnia's optics diminished displaying disappointment. "I've perfected the transformation process for you. A form that would suit you can now range from cold blood to warm blood! See for yourself! Insecticons to me!"

Bombshell and Shrapnel dropped down from the ceiling in insect form. With a swift snap they transformed to robot mode. Cackling the walked closer towards Optimus intent on aiding their master in subduing the Autobot for the conversion process.

"Autobots!" shouted Optimus.

Rattrap and Hot Shot swung in to the horror of their optics to find their comrade a victim of some vile experiment. They realized that their guns would be wasted on the already dying or dead Decepticons.

"What in the slag pit..." Rattrap focused on the two bugs and fired. The blasts left the Decepticons flat on the ground with smoke billowing out of their backs. Without getting distracted he pulled out a pair of stasis cuffs and tossed one to Hot Shot. "C'mon make yer self useful kiddo."

"You think I want to run from this?" shouted Blackarachnia pushing Optimus back. She armed herself with a handheld weapon and held it out towards her former comrade.

Optimus dropped his weapon and held up his hands. "Hold on... let's be rash now. I thought you were killed in that transwarp explosion only to run into you out here!"

"What... what are you saying?" stuttered Blackarachnia beginning to lose hold of the situation.

Hot Shot and Rattrap were eager to jump in but Optimus signaled to stay put. He began to step closer towards Blackarachnia keeping her calm. Until finally he held her in his arms. "It's fate that brought us together again..." As the words escaped Prime's mouth Blackarachnia succumbed to her weakness and dropped the weapon. Optimus shut his optics and whispered silently, "Forgive me..."

Blackarachnia's optics opened wide. Before she could question it, Optimus knocked her to the ground unconscious. He put her into stasis lock and turned to the two Autobots on the slabs. "Hot Shot, get the two prisoners back to the surface. Rattrap, I need you to download the data from the terminal and level this place. I'll take care of Ironhide and... Cheetor."
==========
Hot Shot knocked on the door to Optimus' private quarters. "Sir?"

Optimus raised his head and took a deep breath. The last mission had left him in a moral twist. Preferring to remain in silence, Optimus ultimately decided to entertain the cadet's inquiry. He turned it to the side of his crouched position and stood up. He walked to the door and opened it. "Yes Hot Shot?"

"You alright?" queried the cadet carrying a glass of energon in one hand. He extended it and handed it over to his commander.

Optimus thanked the soldier with a simple nod and accepted the liquefied energon. "I will be. What's up?"

A smile returned to Hot Shot's face realizing his commander was in the speaking mood. "Well Primal is on the line for you."

"Very well, I'll take it in my quarters. Anything else?" asked Optimus.

Hot Shot shook his head. "No sir, but if you do need anything else - like a bot to talk to, the others and I will be on duty on the bridge." The cadet calmly walked away as the door shut itself leaving Optimus alone in his quarters.

Optimus turned and sat in his chair, memories flooded back from his hard drive from when he offered Ratchet the same thing. He shut his optics and made a mental note to take the cadet up on the offer, but for now he would deal with business first . He hit a switch on the table as a communication feed was bridged between the ship and the Axalon. He positioned himself upright for the video communication console.

"Ah, Optimus! I wanted to say a final good-bye and thank you before we part ways. " Primal's visage materialized on the screen. "Also a good piece of news, Cheetor is stabilized but due to his condition we will be returning to Cybertron first with the escorts that caught our beacon."

"That's a relief to hear. I'd like to extend the same sentiments, I hope your crew gets to catch some R&R on Cybertron before being reassigned. I'd also like to thank you for taking the prisoners off our hands and your supplies. I will make sure to deliver them to the Autobot outposts enroute for our mission."

"Thank you Optimus Prime. Anyways my crew requires my attention, till we meet again."

Optimus severed the link and dropped his arms onto his thighs lacing his fingers. He lowered his head and turned the chair silently to face the vastness of the dark space ahead of him. He thought of the comrade he had made his prisoner. "Yeah... till we meet again - Elita."

 

Just been reading through this and I'm enjoying it. Love how you've brought in a TFA version of BW involving Optimus meeting and working with Primal and his Maximals. It's interesting as well how Prime is commanding Rodimus' crew at the moment rather than his own Earth crew. It's presented a new test of leadership for him.

In regards to your latest update, I have a feeling that the next time Blackarachnia and Optimus meet, it may be near impossible to repair BA's broken trust. Sad.

 

Thanks Black Oracle, I'm still trying to find the line between throwing a good amount of nods towards the fans and not crossing into too much insane fanwankiness (if that's a term). I would've liked more BW stuff but I wanted to end the arc and get back to the important stuff. Gonna keep building on the characters we knew and loved from Seasons 1 to 3 and that means getting Prime comfortable with commanding troops that are not limited to the ones he knows well.

In regards to the Blackarachnia thing, I'm not exactly sure how she'll react the next time she meets Optimus - but I'm sure it'll be explosive to say the least.

Anyway update time, been riding the surge of renewed enthusiasm with all the Botcon stuff and Almanac 2 around the corner.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Episode 8#: Ghosts of Yesterday

"It ends today Megatron!" Ultra Magnus stood his ground and made sure to keep all his sensors on full alert incase of any sudden moves. His armour was lacerated with damage and his energon levels were low but he had to press on. Any failure to do so would result in death.

The Decepticon tyrant before him erupted in laughter as the Cybertronian cruiser transformed midair and landed on the ground. It leveled the famed fusion canon at Ultra Magnus and charged it to firing power. "You think throwing away the Allspark will save you? I've come to reclaim what is rightfully mine Autobot! By the end of this battle Cybertron will be under Decepticon control!"

Magnus readied and swung the hammer in his hand. The wide arc connected the legendary hammer into the fusion blast sending it back towards Megatron. At which point the Decepticon leader simply moved to the side and let the blast fly into the sky.

"I will never cede this planet to you!" retorted Ultra Magnus readying himself for a counter attack.

"Even if you could stop me - do you think I'd risk the battle for Cybertron simply on my own? Decepticons to me!" roared Megatron raising his fist into the air. The thunderous command of the tyrant called hundreds and thousands of Decepticons to the ground. As they landed around him a crooked smile took form. "Obliterate him!"
Ultra Magnus kept his composure and readied himself for the final length of the battle. His gamble would come down to the next few cycles. The fate of Cybertron depended on him - generations of Autobots to come depended on him. He would not fail them.
==========
"Death by desparking - fits the demeanor of the cowardly Autobots..." hissed the trapped tyrant beyond the energy field. He shut his communication off as he noticed an Autobot sentry pass by the cellblock on a routine check.

Shockwave followed the sentry with his optic until he disappeared out of visual range. He reconnected to the communication hack and addressed Megatron. "Yes my liege - it appears the Autobots are more concerned with the harm I pose as the former head of Autobot intelligence. If we are to make a move - it must be now, my desparking has been scheduled and locked in."

The captive Decepticons had been in communication for slightly over a human week thanks primarily to Megatron's technopathy and Shockwave's intelligence of the Autobot security drone wireless communication network. However, Lugnut and the other Decepticons had been left out of the loop in an effort to minimize the chances of an Autobot engineer from noticing any anomalies in the wireless network. Any pre-emptive leak would cause all their escape efforts to go to waste.

Megatron growled under his breath in frustration. With his so called fair trial coming up shortly, security would only increase - not to mention there were probably many more optics focused on his cell now. The window of opportunity was now but would quickly pass by. He needed to re-evaluate his options and plan of action - quickly."
==========
"Cliffjumper!" Sentinel's voice echoed through the hallway and into the office of the Autobot Intelligence officer. Angrily, Sentinel slammed away the digital display from the red Autobot who was busy at some other task. "Explain to me how we lost communications with Convoy Prime's team!"

Cliffjumper was angered by the sudden action before he recollected himself to report. "Well..." He briefly considered retorting more forcibly but with Sentinel's short temper, Cliffjumper decided best against it. "The space bridge gate in the Archa system has been disabled. We are still unsure as to what caused this. The last communiqué that we received from Convoy only entailed that they're marooned on Archa Nine - a critical point in the early parts of the war... two planets away from..."

"That's enough - Archa Seven was Optimus' mistake! Not mine and let's not forget that ok?"

Cliffjumper's expression shifted slightly. "Uhh... right, but getting back to the situation at hand. I've hailed the nearest Elite Guard vessels to reinforce and ascertain the truth."

As Sentinel nodded in approval of the officer's actions, the door slid open as another ranking Autobot joined the meeting. Cliffjumper saluted politely. "Perceptor, what can I do for you today?"

"Sentinel Prime, all data from the Decepticon interrogations have been sent to the Autobot Provisionary Elemental Experiment division for immediate application. I require Cliffjumper's assistance in accessing the different prototypes that you've assigned to the various special access groups."

"Good, just make sure it doesn't interfere with our plans this afternoon for the new planetary defenses." With that Sentinel briskly left the room.
==========
"Quickly! Stabilize him!" shouted the medic holding down the Autobot hero with both his servos. The white and red Autobot was joined by another before the Autobot was held down on the medical slab. The medic turned and looked to the controls to the far side of them. "Paradron... I can't hold him much longer..."

The green and white medic rushed into the room and hit the control panel to activate the slab's arm restraints. She turned and helped her co-worker up from the ground. "Will he be ok First Aid?"

The flustered Autobot rubbed the side of his cranium and slowly got up. "My protoform ain't built to handle this slag..." He looked up at his stabilized patient who was groaning from the reawakening. "He'll be fine... Minerva's treatment worked well, he's simply suffering from the shock of re-emerging out of a prolonged stasis."

To the Autobot healers' surprise the chassis of the patient surged upward pulling at the restraint before falling back down. His head rolled to the side as a pair of blue optics flared online.

"What's going on?" exclaimed the red and orange adorned Autobot.

"Take it easy Rodimus, we've got you in an Autobot medical facility. You're suffering from the withdrawal symptoms of a new strain of cosmic rust. Thanks to Minerva's innovation and the original cure developed by Ratchet, we've been able to get you online again."

Rodimus groaned and tugged at his locked wrists. "Ughnn... the spacebridge... have to defend... Brawn, Red Alert, Hot Shot, Ironhide... they're in trouble..." The cavalier's words began to weaken and fade.

"Take it easy sir, we've got you hooked to a line of fresh energon but it'll be a few megacycles before you can be freed from our care and several solar cycles before you can resume active duty," reassured Paradron checking on the status of Rodimus' energon supply. "You're in good hands." Smiling, Paradron helped Rodimus ease back down onto the slab.
==========
Shockwave hung his head low as he contemplated in silence. A sudden knock against his cell woke up him. He lethargically twisted his neck upward to meet the optic level of the stout, blue Autobot ahead of him. Preferring not to entertain the security guard he simply stared straight into the guard's optics.

The blue and white Autobot scoffed. "Still think you're so big and mighty huh Shocky? Well I'll tell ya this - we're gonna broadcast your desparking Cybertron-wide. I'm gonna be up-close and personal when we pull the plug on you."

The tip of Shockwave's horns glimmered in the light as he lurched forward with what leeway the restraints provided. "The Decepticons will never fail - our forces on the Outer Rim will overwhelm the Elite Guard and eventually take Cybertron!"

"Good luck with that, with our new planetary defenses we'll blast them to atoms." The Autobot pondered a bit and cracked a smile across his face. "Know what, I'll do you one better Shocky, I'll bring in a monitor drone and show you the live broadcast."

"I promise you Beachcomber, the last sight you will see is my servo ripping your head off your chassis. That I swear..."

The guard remained silent for a bit then broke up in laughter. "Right tough guy, remind me again when we pull the plug..." Beachcomber turned around and continued down the prison with his shift.

As Shockwave watched the Autobot prick move off his sight he tapped into the communication link with Megatron. "My liege, I believe we have our window of escape."

"Enlighten me Shockwave..."

"I've been informed that a weapons test is to occur within the
megacycle. With your access to the drone I believe I can upload a carrier program that will activate a few failsafe phantom files I programmed into their weapon systems."

"What good will that do for us?"

Shockwave checked the path again as a couple of guards made their way out of the main prison chamber. "I designed those programs to disable the weapon systems via a multitude of ways. If you upload the right program, I can overload their energy grid."

"I'm sure the Autobots have a backup generator in case of emergencies..."

"Of course my liege, which is precisely why that program is a dual processing virus to disable the activation of their proprietary systems. The second they attempt to switch to their fail safe - they will be shut down and completely locked out of the energy grid. It will then give me the opportunity to hack into the space bridge network and allow us to escape off world."

Megatron contemplated, with Shockwave's plan they stood a chance at making it off Cybertron. Perhaps he could rally some more troops on the Outer Rim before making another attempt on the home world. The time to act was now, time to create new plans would be for later. "Do it.

"Uploading instructions now my liege."
==========
"Is there anything else you can do for him?" asked Rodimus watching the frame of the once might Ultra Magnus hooked up to a complex life support system.

Paradron shook her head, "His injuries were intense, only time will heal. We're keeping his spark stabilized with raw energon. It's dangerous but it's the only way to sustain his spark after what Shockwave did to him..." She wheeled Rodimus around to leave the observation deck before suddenly pausing. "Oh... Alpha Trion sir, I didn't know..."

"That's perfectly alright Paradron. I was on my way to ascertain Rodimus' well being. It's good to have you back."

Rodimus nodded. "Thank you for your concern Alpha Trion. I can only hope that I am able to return to active duty soon. My team needs me."

"Just as Cybertron needs you," replied Alpha Trion placing his hand on the Autobot's shoulder. "You will need to recover, meanwhile your team is in the excellent care of another Prime. With our forces stretched primarily across the outer rim, it may be some time before they return to Cybertron."

Before Rodimus could reply the lights began to flicker. Paradron opened her arm console and tapped into their communications. "What's going on?"
==========
Cliffjumper manned the communication console and tapped back into the system. "Just a preliminary weapons test. Situation normal, just beware that our power reserves may flicker on and off in the next few cycles. Cliffjumper out."

Sentinel stood tall on the command deck of Fortress Maximus. Most of the head Autobots had gathered for the demonstration of the latest upgrade to the Autobot stronghold. He crossed his arms and focused on the asteroid target several clicks ahead of them. "Full energon ahead Cliffjumper. Blast that target to space debris!"

The entire station shuddered with quakes as it diverted energon to its new planetary defense cannons. Before it could fire, its energy discharged within the fortress causing breakdowns in the energon grid.

"What's going on? I demand answers!"

Cliffjumper scurried to do his best but it didn't look good. Their main systems had burnt out. He had attempted to tap into their proprietary systems but he had been locked out. As far as he knew the entire station was defenseless. Then a look of fear enveloped the intelligence head's face. "Uhh sir... we've lost power... Even worse we've lost power to the prison hold!"

Sentinel's optics widened. "Get all available Autobots into the prison - we must hold the Decepticons back! Don't let a single one of them escape! Perceptor, I want the space bridge nexus shut down - if they escape I don't want them getting off world!"
==========
Shockwave ripped his arms free and crashed a guard into the wall silencing his cries for help. He rotated his arms around and smashed the connection point of the cuffs and released his servos. He wrenched them in a circular motion - enjoying the freedom that had been restored to him. Moving quickly, Shockwave smashed into the control panel to release the remaining Decepticon prisoners. With the freedom of the Decepticons - Shockwave rushed to his liege's side.

"Quickly, we must reach a maintenance escape route in order to make it to the space bridge nexus!" Shockwave waved to lead Megatron away from the other Decepticons breaking out. With the destruction, smoke filled the hallways blurring their vision. Both Megatron and Shockwave knew that the best way to increase the odds of escaping would be to sacrifice the others to the Autobots that would soon be swarming their location.

Shockwave rushed ahead into the carnage but not before coming across the frame of a familiar blue Autobot guard. Beachcomber's frame laid against the wall, an explosion had caught him offguard and left him injured. With a swift move, Shockwave grabbed Beachcomber's neck and raised him against the wall.

"You'll never make it out of here alive. No way you're getting off world and in a few cycles there will be enough guards to ruin this little prison break..."

Shockwave remained silent. He placed his free hand on Beachcomber's head and with a powerful tug yanked the Autobot's head off. Continuing with the pull, the rest of the Autobot guard's spinal array came oozing out of the empty frame. Shockwave released headless chassis and used the end of the spinal cord as a tap. He downloaded the information the guard had been loaded with and adjusted his plan accordingly.

"What's going on Shockwave?" demanded Megatron as he pushed his way through the tiny corridors.

Shockwave turned to Megatron and gestured for him to follow. "Change in plans my liege, the space bridge network is down. A countermeasure that I considered, we can head underground to my laboratory. We can consider other options then."

"Then let us do so, lead the way Shockwave."
==========
Ultra Magnus watched the timer reach zero. The necessary energon had been gathered. He lacked the energon to run a diagnostic check - as long as he succeeded it didn't matter whether or not he survived. Battered and surrounded by Decepticons, Ultra Magnus gripped his hammer and made a wide swing into the air knowing the full weight of the hammer would prevent him from blocking the next attack.

Megatron seized the opportunity and fired his fusion cannon. The red energy surged outward and slammed Ultra Magnus directly in the chest. He cackled for the pre-eminent victory.

The cannon's destructive power carried Magnus up from the ground and blasted him a significant distance away from the battle site. Amazed he was still functional, Ultra Magnus wearily raised his head to see the Decepticons land around Megatron. The army was taking in their leader's victory and would soon stampede their way into the heart of Iacon.

"You should have reconsidered throwing away your life so recklessly Autobot. Now you will pay the price..."

Ultra Magnus let his head fall back and sent the mental command to activate the trap. Several gateways flipped up and the rails slowly twisted to the side. Energy illuminated the ground where the Decepticon army was standing. In a flash of energy the army vanished in an uproar of electrical energy.

"Magnus! You did it! It worked! The Decepticons were removed off world with the nexus' warp gate shunt!"

Darkness set in on Magnus as he shut his optics. His surroundings fell silent but not before suddenly feeling the situation darkening. The Autobot high commander's optics flared to life. "Shockwave..."

 

This is Awesome!

 

Just read the whole thing so far. This is great stuff! Keep it up!  

 

I can definetly imagine Shockwave and Megatron's escape plan in my head clearly. And killing Beachcomber - oh, what a pleasure that'd be for Derrick J Wyatt.   Great job.

Hilarious keeping Lugnut out of the loop - if he found out about the plan, he'd be going apesh*t about glorious Megatron's plan.  

 

You've done a great job of weaving the various bits of TF continuities together. It is a very believable story and I'm on the edge of my chair waiting for the next update!

 

Thanks for the kind words, and I will!

Haha, indeed! When I was planning this episode's installment, I knew I had to kill off some bot to make the escape much more real. I didn't want to make it just some random red-shirt so I remembered reading about Wyatt's hatred of Beachcomber on his formspring awhile back so I decided to give him a death worthy of ROTF Ravage.

Thanks for the support Anodythe, I'm venturing into obscure TF lines too. I've also thrown in other nods to some of my favourite scifi licenses out there. I'm totally hyped for the second Almanac right now, gonna have to try and find it this weekend. With the long weekend in Canada, I'm going to try and make it so that there's an update every Monday for at least awhile.

 

First set of tech specs will be posted up later this week starting with Optimus' new crew.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Episode 9#: Hatching Plans

Megatron and Shockwave snuck into the labyrinth of tunnels under the city of Iacon moving quickly from shadow to shadow - careful not to trigger any motion detectors. The tunnels had been constructed during the Great War to provide Autobot forces a mode of transportation that would not make them obvious to the Decepticon fliers in the skies. Luckily with Shockwave's long term placement in the Autobot intelligence division - the Decepticons had a clear understanding of how the system worked.

Shockwave scanned the area ahead of him and proceeded with caution. A cautious bot all his life - Shockwave knew exactly how tightly wedged against the wall their current predicament left them. "A little further my lord... just hold on and we'll reach a suitable base of operations."

The dastardly duo eventually came to a halt. Darkness surrounded them but with a simple activation of Shockwave's arm beacon, the light illuminated a large abandoned mining shaft. He grappled a hanging cable, gave it a tug to ensure its rigidity and then proceeded to climb down it. For several megacycles of silence passed as the Decepticon escapists lowered themselves into the depths of Cybertron. Upon landing Shockwave checked his bearings once more before proceeding into a tunnel made of sharp and rusty metal jutting out in all directions.

"Where in the Allspark are we Shockwave?" groaned Megatron noting the unfamiliar surroundings. Then he noted markings, crude but seemingly some ancient form of Cybertronian hieroglyphics.

Shockwave noted his liege's curiosity but decided to let the destination speak for itself. He led his exalted leader to a large metal wall. Though aged, it maintained its durability in sealing secrets long forgotten. He placed his hand on a more recently placed contraption on the door and transferred his energy signature. Thundering occurred as a high pitched screech filled the audio receptors of the two explorers. Gears began to grind as the massive door unlocked and lights activated.

"Welcome to the city of the creators mighty Megatron..." replied Shockwave upon walking into a massive underground cavern. In the distance ruined monuments and structures almost alien to them but still bearing some resemblance to the aesthetic of modern day Cybertron filled the cavern ground.

Megatron looked out in awe for the first time in countless stellar cycles. He recalled the legends he had heard long ago, never had he considered it truth but now with irrefutable evidence before him, Megatron reconsidered his position on the matter. "How is this possible Shockwave?"

"This site was discovered by myself a few stellar cycles after my taking over of Autobot intelligence. I simply followed up on what research and discoveries the Autobots had made while tunneling under Iacon. A couple solar cycles of work yielded an appropriate mechanism to unlock this city."

Megatron gave Shockwave a frightful stare. "I don't care how you found it, I want to know what it is and how it came to be!"

"Right, I apologize my liege. I believe..." Shockwave received another glare and realized to skip the formalities and straight to the facts. "The creator myth is not well known but parts of it indicate that Cybertron in the past was much smaller than it is now. Eons perhaps millennia of expansion and growth led us to build over and atop of our past - leaving our history far beneath the ground. This is one of the surviving cities from the time of the creators. Luckily for us it still has a sizeable cache of energon, I setup a lab and workstation here in the event that a situation like this would arise."

"You have planned well Shockwave. We will bide our time and plan the best course of action here... right under the olfactory sensors of the Autobots..." declared Megatron gazing across his new sanctuary.

Shockwave examined Megatron - his armour still lacerated from his final battle on Earth. Weaponless and damaged, he would not be an adequate threat against the best the Elite Guard had to offer. "My lord, I believe it is time for your treatment?"

"What?" asked Megatron narrowing his optics.

"The upgrades I mentioned to you as a part of the plan... I have had over fifty stellar cycles to hone the triple changer technology Blackarachnia retrofitted Blitzwing with - I believe if integrated into your superstructure you can single handedly take down an army of Ultra Magni."

Megatron didn't respond as a crooked smile cracked across his visage.
==========
"Hoist it up! No not there!" A groan followed with a disgruntled sigh. "Over there!" The foreman lifted his yellow helmet and wiped the sweat off his face then returned to the task at hand. "You good for nothing!"

The crane creaked to bring the load of iron beams to another height before starting to waver. Watching from below, the construction crew instantly realized the impending problem. Too much weight had been loaded and with the rapid change in inertia, the crane had little integrity to resist. Wincing for a moment was all it took and without adequate time to flinch and run, the crew dropped to the ground as the iron beams came falling down.

Crispy blue magnetic energy lanced out into the air crackling through the ears of the doomed. One crewman bravely opened an eye and looked up. To his marvel, although knowing of this Cybertronian's powers couldn't believe his eyes.

"You know even with magnetic powers, these things aren't light..." muttered Ratchet trying to keep his arms steady. Any sudden variation in movement may break the magnetic hold he had on the metallic ordinances and impale the humans below.

"Huh?"

Ratchet groaned and decided to go with a more direct approach. "Move it!"

What began as wonder turned into fear and the humans quickly complied and scattered farther away. At which point, Ratchet eased up and slowly but steadily lowered the iron beams safely to the ground. He exhaled some fumes and retracted his magnetic manipulators.

"Good job big R," commented Jazz jovially. The Autobot clad in white leapt over the wired fence and helped to restack the iron beams.

"Yeah... just make sure the area is cleaned up for the reception"

Jazz chuckled and gave a salute as a sign of his compliance while tucking a few beams beneath his left arm. "Gotcha boss."

Ratchet punched into an open frequency and connected to his team's channel. He held his wrist communicator closer to his mouth and spoke. "Arcee, what's the ETA for the delivery?"

A frequency buzzed for a click and then Arcee's soft voice filled in with a response, "Currently en-route Ratchet. Local estimation ten to fifteen minutes. The humans have loaded their experimental plasma drive engine from Sumdac Tower."

"Affirmative."

The caravan of human vehicles and two Autobot escorts travelled along the highway from the densely populated core of Detroit City heading for a Sumdac conversion plant just outside the stretches of the city limits.

"This foundation... it seems to be made of a polymer that increases in flexibility proportional to the heat," observed Wheeljack trailing the left side of the armoured transport.

Captain Fanzone snickered pulling up to the white Autobot car. "It's called rubber. Now quit your yabberin' and pay attention to your job. It's up to us to get this stuff to that facility in one pi-"

Before the police captain could finish his sentence, a fully transformed Arcee collided into the yellow vehicle that Fanzone drove. A subsequent bombardment of energy sent the Autobot flying forward. Wheeljack spun in circles as he tried to slam on the breaks and drift. The screeching signaled the sketching of black tire marks on the pavement as Wheeljack lost control and smashed into the freighter.

Sari hovered over the wreckage with her battle mode engaged. "Hey! You alright?"

Wheeljack converted to robot mode and let his head fall forward. "Ugh..." A few seconds later he was whisked away by Arcee. He caught a glimpse of the flaming accident then moved his sights into the air where he saw the figure of a female seeker. "Decepticon!"

Arcee shoved Wheeljack over into the highway barriers to seek cover from the volley of null lasers that kept them pinned down. She surveyed the area and made sure the humans were safe. "What now Ratchet?"

Slipstream smiled as she continued peppering the frightened Autobot position and keeping the flesh bags at bay. This mission would be far too easy. "Alright boys, bag and tag! Let's get going!"

With her command, two construction vehicles rolled into sight. They transformed into Mixmaster. The two headed straight into the flames to harvest the experimental drive. As it was secured, Slipstream waved her hand to gesture a retreat.

"You got it boss!" roared Mixmaster.

"Who? I'm the boss! Get it straight ya mook!" shouted Dirtboss furious at what he believed to be mix-up.

"Oh right... sorry boss." Mixmaster turned to Dirtboss as he packed the drive into his storage compartment. The two transformed and began to roll out of the site. "Let's roll pal!"

Ratchet monitored the signal from a mobile setup with Jazz. "Hold position - they've taken the bait. Return to my position and we'll proceed accordingly. Sumdac has prepared a cleanup crew for the incident."

"Roger that," responded Arcee helping Wheejack back up.

Wheeljack nodded in thanks. "A minor wound but hopefully it sells the act..."
==========
"Well is the signal working?" queried Fanzone taking a bite out of a doughnut. He had been reluctant to let the Autobots pull this stunt, but they had made the convincing argument to hunt down the remaining Decepticons. And in the long run any reduction in the number of machines was a victory.

Ratchet smiled as he continued working at the mobile terminal. "Yep. Gotta give that wacky wonko of a scientist credit. Who knew he was actually sane enough to throw this together?"

"Hey, I resent that!" shouted Wheeljack seated on a cargo box. He was implementing his own repairs but kept his audio receptors on the topic at hand.

Jazz kept his arms crossed evaluating the signal movement across the screen. If everything went according to plan this simple transmitter trap would lead them directly to the Decepticon base of operations.

"Everything clear to go?"

Ratchet looked up from the display into Arcee's optics. "Yep, it's now or never. We storm their base - every bot helps!"

"How about me?" quipped Sari.

Ratchet knew his answer would not satisfy the young Sari Sumdac. Prime tried, and it wasn't going to change now. The best he could do was to minimize danger by keeping an optic out for her. "Affirmative..." sighed Ratchet. "But you stick with Arcee alright? And I mean STICK!"

"Aye aye!"

Ratchet turned to the few troops he had ahead of him. "Alright bots, transform and roll out!" As his crew converted to vehicle modes with Sari climbing into Arcee, he turned back to Wheeljack. "You stay here and keep monitoring the situation - if anything happens you call Cybertron for the reinforcements. Got that?"

Wheeljack simply motioned his head to gesture his compliance.
==========
"Jazz in position, over."

Ratchet gave Arcee and Sari the nod. "I'm going in, you guys follow and cover me!" The Autobot veteran powered up his magnetic lances and jumped into the small outcropping of forest that they had followed the tracking signal to.

"Gotcha!" shouted Ratchet yanking up what he believed to be the plasma drive generator. A click passed before Ratchet realized that all he had was the source of the signal. "What?"

"Autobot Ratchet mistaken, tracking operation was expected!" declared a familiar voice as a white Decepticon emerged from the thicket.

Sari and Arcee stepped behind Ratchet to see what was going on for themselves. "Hey its Soundwave! But... not Soundwave..." Sari gave a puzzled look. "Why is he white?"

"Maybe he decided for a new paintjob. It doesn't matter. Slag him!" shouted Ratchet as he crushed the signal beacon that he had in his magnetic field.

Jazz materialized from the shadows on command and grappled Soundwave. "Gotcha clyde!"

Ratchet led the other two members of his team closer to inspect the prisoner. He held his lancet towards the Decepticon's neck. "Now tell me where the plasma energy drive is... before we resort to anything drastic!"

Soundwave's optics simply changed colour to black as its systems shut down. "Unfortunately you've already resorted to something drastic. Crushing our rewired beacon activated the sonic bomb implemented into this drone. Goodbye Autobots." Soundwave's chestplate contorted and revealed a bomb similar in make of the one that Starscream had loaded into his early clone prototypes.

Ratchet's optics widened in fear. "Autobots! RUN!"

Jazz released the ticking bomb and followed in the footsteps of his comrades. He quickly realized they wouldn't be able to run far enough to clear the blast radius. "Bots, behind me!"

"What?" shouted Ratchet.

"That bomb is rigged with an extremely large blast radius. Fall behind me now!" Jazz slammed his feet into the ground kicking up large amounts of dirt. He turned to face the discarded Decepticon and prepared himself mentally. It was time to see if he could pull off the latest technique he had been developing since the battle of Detroit.

There wasn't much time to argue, but if it were true it was their best option. Ratchet agreed and halted their running along with Arcee and Sari. They watched their comrade assume the sitting meditation pose of a trained cyber-ninja. The explosion ignited not too far off and sent shockwaves in their direction. To Ratchet's amazement Jazz's chassis began to emanate waves of blue energy. It soon erected a barrier around the squad to ward off the explosion.

"What the slag was that?" demanded Ratchet as the explosion subsided leaving them unharmed. "Would've been nice to know if you had that trick up your servo."

Jazz wearily smiled slumping back. The cyber-ninja technique had drained him significantly as he expected but now learnt firsthand how exhausting it was. "I've been working on my processor over matter. To be completely honest with you boss - I wasn't sure it'd work."

"Wasn't sure!?!?!" roared Ratchet furious that their survival depended on whether or not Jazz had completed his cyber-ninja technique. He shook his hand in the air in anger.

"Hey at least he saved our skidplates!" exclaimed Sari taking flight once more.

Arcee nodded in agreement. "Indeed, as you can see there was no way we could've cleared the blast." She turned to indicate how the entire forest had been flattened by the sonic bomb. "It was by the grace of the Allspark that the bomb was not in the city limits and Jazz's training that we survived."

"Fine..." grunted Ratchet deciding on how to reprimand Jazz once the team had returned to base.

"Salvaged parts of a crashed Decepticon crusier... destronium and now a plasma energy drive..." listed Sari off the top of her head. She flew up and landed on Arcee's shoulder. "What are the Decepticons up to?"

"Nothing good... that's for sure," replied Arcee.

"Well duhh..." laughed Sari.

Ratchet sighed and considered a few possibilities but decided to keep them to himself for now. "We need to find out sooner than later. Jazz, patch us into Cybertron. I want specialists on this."

Jazz tapped into his communicator but shook his head. "That's a negatory boss. All Autobot Elite Guard frequencies are offline. I got nadda, it's like listening in on dead space."

Wheeljack attempted the same thing from the mobile setup back in the city. He tapped into the frequency, "Similarly for me."

"Any chance of us being jammed?" asked Arcee providing insight.

Jazz shook his head. "Naw, wait I'm getting something. Tune in to this frequency."

"This is Cliffjumper, if you're hearing this realize that Cybertron is in planet-wide lockdown. We have Decepticon escapees, we have shut down all communications and the space bridge nexus in an attempt to quarantine the planet. Please rally to the closest Prime for further orders. Cliffjumper out."

"Well that's good news..." said Sari sarcastically.

"Sounds like we're on our own," replied Jazz.

"Yup," answered Ratchet grimly.

Unknown to the Autobots, a small red and black condor observed the situation from the sky.
==========
"Enough, return to base Lazerbeak. Operation - successful," said Soundwave monitoring the situation in the depths of the Decepticon base. He turned and faced his compatriot Slipstream.

"Well, what now?"

"Install the drive," commanded Soundwave walking over to a medical slab. He stepped up a small stool and stared at the black frame resting on the slab with great interest.

Slipstream motioned to Dirtboss to carry out Soundwave's orders. "And how about the remains of the facsimile?"

"Not relevant, all traces of the facsimile was eradicated by your sonic bomb. At least it proved my facsimile technology works. It was unstable without a spark to begin with." He activated the light and brought to Slipstream's optic a shard of the Allspark. "Luckily I have devised a way to form a spark from the shard..."