Embers in the Night

The second story in the Uprising series. Things really hot up and the action kicks in in this story. Not my greatest, but a lot better than my last two!

Cheetor listened intently to what his saviour had to say. He had been doing so for the past few hours, she seemed to have a lot to say. The cyber car sped, well, as fast as a D model could go, along the air thermals towards Kiulist, where she had sworn to defend every Maximal in the city.

It was dark now, Amethyst was sleeping across the back seat while he sat listening in the front, next to Ulextra.

“So you see, my dad was right about Nystrin getting scrapped, but he was wrong about Surnbalade being the safest place on Cybertron. It was because my father ranted and raved on how ‘Nystrin was gonna get it’ as a child, I grew interested in the little town. So when I grew up I went to work there.” She continued, reaching the stage in her life story where she actually got a job.

“So you lived in Nystrin?” He asked, previously having explained that was where he was from.

“A news reporter. To think, if it had been another city I would have been filming it all at this moment. Sad, isn’t it?”

Cheetor was too full of new questions, after what she had just said, to answer her question.

“Yes, I did. Oh Primus, there’s another one of my pals under the rubble. Why, did you know him?” She asked, her voice scratchy with emotion.

“There’s something I haven’t tried yet,” he muttered as he fiddled with his COM.

………………………………………………………………………………………….

Optimus had muttered after telling him of Snow Crystal’s death that she had been killed in the detonation of the airbase.

But he gradually got to grips with it and moved over to Optimus. Optimus was gazing down despondently, his entire form slumped with grief.

Rattrap sat on the table beside him and looked down too. He wasn’t sure how he was going to sooth him.

“L-Listen, Optimus. I-I know dis is hard on ya. But ya got a look at it from another angle.”

“You see…Snow Crystal left at da best time. She left before she saw da atrocities of da war, or even became part of them. Da Preds…dey could have done worse. Enslaved her, forced information outa her…or worse. But…but she joined da Matrix before all of that, so, at least her spark is safe up dere.”

Optimus was so silent it frightened Rattrap. He hadn’t moved, not even blinked.

“Yes…yes, I suppose. But I- I- I’m still going to miss her. So…so much,” he said, his voice breaking.

Rattrap could have broken down in sobs right there, but he was stronger than that.

“Sure you will. But she’ll always be wid’ ya. In here,” he said, tapping over Optimus’s spark.

Rattrap had a sudden urge to run back to Tourmaline and hold her close…he was never going to take her for granted again.

“Sorry to have to put you…in such an awkward situation Rattrap. I just heard you were here…and I didn’t know where else to turn.” He choked.

“Hey, hey. It’s all right. We’re all suffering losses here. We’re all in da same mess. So if ever ya wanna talk, I’ll be here. I’m upstairs, landing three room one. I’ll be there for ya, man.”

“Thanks. I…I think I’d better get cleaned up.” He said, eyeing over his dusty, scratched form. Rattrap noted that his hands were absolutely shredded.

He’d never seen anyone so depressed and couldn’t begin to imagine the pain he must be going through.

As he entered the elevator he started muttering death threats to the Predacons. He would kill them, every last one. They, he thought, deserved to burn in the Pit.

He left the elevator and as he stepped out, saw Tourmaline just leaving the room, curiosity in her eyes.

“Don’t you ever get buried under a pile a rubble again!” He cried and squeezed her.

“A friend. A friend who’s lost a friend. And who just made me realise something…”

Rattrap froze, his sentence almost finished, but he was suddenly glad that it wasn’t.

“I…like ya a lot, I’m always warmin’ up to ya! More than I’ve ever warmed up to anyone before,” he said, getting uncomfortable.

She opened her mouth to say something when suddenly sirens screamed and red lights started flashing

Tourmaline spun around and looked down the hallway. A doctor came running towards them.

As the human approached Rattrap turned her around to face the doctor and pointed to her.

“Member of the CPD (Cybertron Police Department) and,” he said, pointing to himself. “A chief mechanic at your service.”

The human paused and thought this over for a moment, before his face turned back into its worried state.

“Oh…um, good. Then you,” He said gesturing at Rattrap “must go down the bottom floor and follow the signs to the engine room. We’re a bit short of mechanics since three got fried at Daxlider’s Shadow, poor souls.”

“And you,” the doctor said, now pointing at Tourmaline “must also go along this hallway ‘til you get to the end safety cabin, where all our patients are being rushed to now. You must make sure no one leaves the cabin until the all clear is given,” he said hurriedly.

“Right.” They said in union and both turned towards their destinations. But both turned around again and gave each other a quick kiss.

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

As Rattrap burst into the engine room he felt his wrist vibrate. He glanced down momentarily; a little dazed from the gush of hot air that greeted him once he entered the room. His COM link flashed and his spark leapt. Only a few people knew his COM code.

He glowered at him before turning and leaving the engine room and entering the quieter hallway outside.

“Cheetor here. Rattrap, where are you?” He said loudly, not wasting any time on obvious things like saying ‘You’re alive!’ or, “Great to hear your voice again.’

“On a rescue ship currently leaving Surnbalade. We’re bein’ chased by Preds. You?”

“Ulextra? Kiulist? How is Kiulist?” He asked frantically, hoping that the city was safe so they could get dropped off.

Rattrap breathed out a sigh of relief. At least someone other than Optimus and Tourmaline was alive.

He turned and pushed into the engine room. Steam hissed through and oil was spilled messily all over the place.

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

David looked at Firestorm quickly, before getting back to yelling at his troops.

“Corporal, move the right flank over a little! Soldier Baxting, just where do you think you are going? Get back with your group!”

David turned to face him again, clearly agitated. The heat from the raging fires around him was cooking him inside his suit.

“I don’t know. They were behind the reserves. We have lost contact with all of them. Lieutenant Danzhire was in charge.”

An explosion rocked both almost off their feet and the sky was dark with clouds of ash. As dark as night, the only thing they could see by was the continuous flashing of gunfire, lighting up the area like a gigantic fireworks display. It was daytime in fact, but no one seemed to notice. David paused a moment, then spoke.

“The last guy he was shouting at was Sergeant Gifring, you could try him.” He said.

A high-pitched whistle drowned out Firestorm’s reply. But David could see he’d got the message, as he headed off to the underground bunker to contact Gifring. It was deafening out here.

With a grunt David turned to reorder his troops, only to find they weren’t there.

“Corporal!” He screamed angrily and sprinted into the city to look for them.

……………………………………………………………………………………

Joe stepped off the ramp into the smouldering city. And immediately wanted to go back inside.

He turned and started going back up but Jason latched onto his arm and pulled him down.

“To get my cigarettes! We’re outside now and I really don’t think it is going to make a difference whether I smoke here or not!”

An explosion from behind and an angry cry from a Sergeant Major got him moving again.

Joe struggled to get free but was dragged along by the much healthier and stronger (at the moment) Jason.

“But it might be the last cigarette I ever have!” He protested. He sighed and gave in and followed Jason.

He looked around at the crumbled buildings; smoke still billowing out of them. Many of them had loose wires sparking ominously. Dead ahead he could see the city’s still standing buildings, like black pillars in the sky. Most of them were smoking and one fell before his eyes. It exploded and showers of metal spread out like a billion tracer bullets in all directions. He could hear screams and yells, but most were cut short. As he neared the city, trying as best as he could to keep up with the somewhat eager army, he saw two soldiers plodding back, supporting a third in the middle. The third’s head hung limply, the glass face part of the helmet was shattered and a trail of coughed up spit spilled out from the cracked face glass. A hole in the leg of his suit revealed his raw flesh, burnt to what looked like fried pieces of bacon.

“Move it up, soldier!” A sergeant screamed in his ear. He shook his head and rolled his eyes, though the Sergeant couldn’t really see his face as the reflections from the fire and explosions on his helmet masked his face. He was glad. Jason pulled him along. A little to eagerly for Joe.

He plunged his fist down on the tentacle like hand of Jason’s and with a wail of pain he let go.

“Where are the funny robot guys? Aren’t they supposed to be fighting too?” Joe asked.

Suddenly there were cries from ahead and the soldiers looked up to see another group of soldiers, standing around a…a…

“It’s a lieutenant from the Predacon army!” One cried excitedly. The sergeants rushed over and ordered men to tie up the dazed Lieutenant and take him in for interrogation. Joe’s line of troops continued marching forward and as he passed the fallen transformer, he caught his eye. And he never thought robots could manage dirty looks. But the look he gave Joe was one of fear and curiosity at the same time, and that stirred something inside of him. Though he wasn’t sure what, so he forgot about it.

“Did you see it? Wow, it’s huge! And so malicious looking! That combination of black and silver and maroon was incredibly sinister looking!” Jason exclaimed.

“Did you see? It’s a Lieutenant! They’ll be taking him in for interrogation!”

Suddenly the line broke up and soldiers started scattering themselves into the city. Joe didn’t know where to turn; he hadn’t been listening to the Sergeant.

He decided to follow the most organised looking lot of soldiers, and then changed his mind when he saw Jason there. He sprinted and caught up with a group of about twenty EA Fighters and followed them up to where there was a make-do fort. It was basically a pile of rubble stuck between two buildings, but it would have to do. The soldiers instantly fell on their knees and aimed their guns at the transformer Predacons, though Joe preferred angry lawnmowers.

………………………………………………………………………………………….

And if any of the three children were killed, she would lose her connection to her mother. And that meant losing her aim in life.

She walked through the underground hallway and came to a room. A room with a sealed, wooden door. She became air and whisked through the wooden cracks. When she reformed inside she smiled at seeing the huge blue crystal glowing in front of her. This crystal was her ‘telephone’. She turned and saw Chimera, sitting patiently in the corner of the dark room, lit only by the pulsating blue light of the crystal. Her sister. One piece of the puzzle solved. But her sister knew not of this puzzle, and it was time she explained.

The Predacon child, and she was really a child having been born only three weeks ago, blinked slowly.

Kismet nodded, the door was wooden yes, but there was an invisible force field around it, which she couldn’t break through. Only Kismet could travel through this field.

“Aw, don’t be bitter. It’s for your own good, as I’ve come to explain.”

Kismet seated herself beside her sister, who was not aware of her own powers and of her significance.

Kismet clapped her hands and a puff of rainbow dust rose up and shimmered down in a glittery curtain. Chimera’s eye’s sparkled with awe and she caught some of the colourful substance in her hand. The little dust particles danced around merrily, swirling and rising and falling, before finally settling still in a star shape on the palm of her hand.

“Long ago, when the Universe was as young as you, two entities formed. How they formed, and who made them is still a mystery. Some believe it was Primus, others believe it was Unicron, but it does not matter. The two entities drifted through space until they met. And when they met, there was an explosion that spread stars and planets shooting through the sky, galaxies and nebulas flying. Humans like to call it the big bang. I like to call it the beginning of the end. The two entities that met were Alpha and Omega. And when they met, they had two children.”

“The first born was called Life, and the second born, Death. Now, Life and Death lived side-by-side, they played, they fought and they explored the universe together. They were so big that they covered most of it, and where they passed they left a trail.

Life and Death could be everywhere and anywhere at the same time, so naturally they were difficult to keep track of. One day, night, year, century, (Time and Space, their niece and nephew who were the children of Light and Dark, who were descended from Alpha and Omega, hadn’t recorded any dates for us), Life and Death created something. They were merely experimenting with unformed entities drifting through space when they made these things. And these things were Perchance and Definitely. Perchance and Definitely became their ‘pets’, if you will, and Life and Death took good care of them. But as the Universe formed and time went by, Perchance and Definitely had a daughter.

Chimera’s eyes were full on interest and slight confusion. Kismet was trying to keep the history of the Universe as simple as possible, but there was still some confusion, she could see. But she decided to carry on and wait until the end to see if little Chimera had caught on.

“Now Fate,” Kismet went on “was very playful. She loved to watch her parents create life on planets and take it away just as quickly. She loved to watch them set the Universe alight with trillions of billions of glowing planets, billions which had life forms living on them, some still forming. And when she saw these life forms, she took an immediate liking to them. And she toyed and played with their futures, changing it, directing them onto paths that would take them to Death eventually, but each path was different. Each path had a whole lot of sub branches of what ‘could happen’ and she turned them down these paths at will. Thereby deciding their fate. Now Fate too was very large and she could control the destinies of every single form of anything at the same time. She loved it. But as Fate grew older, she decided she’d like some rest and she created a few thousand children to help her do her job. Each a branch of her. These children did just this thing, well, most of them. Some decided to hide themselves within a life form and live on a planet, undetected by Fate. They were adventurous and enjoyed living in these life forms but it caused them to forget their tasks. They passed from one life form to another until they decided to take control of a body and become that life form. And here’s the interesting bit,” Kismet said.

“You and I are Fate’s children, who have long forgotten our tasks, much less how to do them. Except I remember vaguely what I had to do, but not how to do it.”

“Yes. It’s true. And I can prove it to you. Give me your hand.” Kismet demanded.

Suddenly their hands glowed and the Crystal beside them shone more brightly and a blue-green mist rose around them. Part of the mist divided into two arms that reached out at the Crystal and pulled a small piece of it away. The piece glowed and shone brightly, changing from blue to green, to blue again. Slowly the piece drifted to Chimera, who scrambled back in fear, but Kismet held tightly onto her hand.

Suddenly Chimera’s chest plate opened, a thing only she could do, but she had no control over it this time. He spark was open to the world and she shrieked in horror as the crystal flew inside of her. The tiny blue stone nestled beside her spark and her chest plate closed quickly. The mist faded and she was left with what felt like volcanic adrenaline rush.

“Wh-what just…happened?” She stuttered. Kismet let go of her hand and smiled darkly.

Kismet stood and opened her chest plate briefly, showing that she too had a stone beside her spark, but this one glowed red, then turquoise then purple. Her chest plate closed and she suddenly became a ball of flames, then turned into a pillar of water, whish hissed and became wind. She swirled around Chimera before reforming in front of her, her seemingly permanent grin stretching.

“Those are my powers. You have your own special ones, which you will learn to use in time. Chimera, what I want to do is escape Cybertron. It is doomed to war and we are helpless in these forms to stop it. We are almost…mortal. I want to join Fate again and get back my full powers, learn how to control again and return later to Cybertron, and do whatever I want with it. Or any other planet that I choose for that matter. But in order to do that, I need to have my three siblings on this planet to join with me. Once we’re combined here, at this very spot. The crystal will transport us back to where we belong, and we will be free again. I want to-”

“Power. I crave it. I need it. And I need you to join with me. To help me find the other two. What say you?”

She looked down at the floor and Kismet worried for a moment on what she’d do next. Although she wouldn’t tell Chimera, the little thing was the most powerful of the four of them on this planet.

“Now, here is a picture of Magnanimous, our brother who we must find,” she said, taking out two photos from her wrist compartment and showing them to Chimera.

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

“Rattrap’s alive. He ‘s on a rescue ship. He said he’d get to Kiulist as soon as he can.”

“That’s great! A friend and another soldier to help us fight these war dogs.” She said cheerfully.

Cheetor opened his mouth to tell her that the rescue ship was being chased by Predacons when he saw in the rear view mirrors that they themselves were being chased.

“Ah! Kiulist dead ahead. We should be there in a few clicks.” She said brightly.

She frowned and looked in her mirrors. When she saw the two Predacon fighter jets looming in the distance her face filled with bitter determination.

She pressed her finger on the boost button on the steering wheel and they surged ahead. Amethyst awoke at the sudden rumble and sat up groggily.

The car barrel-rolled and nose-dived for about 1000 metres before rearing up, jagging left and then to the right before blasting towards the city. Once they were flying the right way up, a very shaken Cheetor looked in the rear view mirrors again. To his relief one of the jets had gone. But to his dismay the other jet was loading three missiles. He opened his mouth to scream a warning when he was stopped by a loud bang. The Predacon ship suddenly exploded and started spiralling down. A Maximal ship flashed past him and he realised it had shot down their attacker. He sighed in relief.

“See? Predacons are useless! I managed to shake them both off with this little old cyber car.” She exclaimed happily.

Cheetor and Amethyst were dumbfounded at how, in less than three minutes, they had been chased, almost blown up and then saved. So they never got round to telling Ulextra of the assistance she had obviously not seen.

Kiulist rose up in front of them and Cheetor could see the tell tale flashes of laser fire around the perimeter of the city. It seemed that the Predacons hadn’t yet broken the lines and entered the city. This was good.

Ulextra flew through a hole in the dome around the city and flew down and landed in an empty parking lot. The instant she landed Maximal soldiers rushed out of every discarded car and building, weapons aimed. She stepped out, held up her arms and smiled.

“Fellow Maximals! I’m a survivor that has chosen to help you fight off the Predacons attacking this city! I’m at your service!” She cried.

The usual routine followed. They scanned her core, found it to be Maximal, scanned Cheetor and Amethyst’s core, scanned them all for weapons and then lowered their weapons. Cheetor and Amethyst stepped out of the car.

The soldiers stood quietly and a few of them parted and a Lieutenant to come out. Above them ships soared and cast a seemingly never-ending display of shadows on the ground. But the dome-like sentinel blocked out the sound and the outside world seemed like a hazy dream.

“Sergeant Major Cheetor, sir!” He said and straightened his posture in respect, despite his whole body threatening to tremble and shake thanks to his previous shock. Amethyst did the same.

“Sweet. Three eager beavers. And what is your profession?” He asked Ulextra.

“More ground soldiers who are currently useless. We have a shortage of pilots and we’re fighting an air battle. The only useful one of all of you is the CECC girl. Come with me, I need you to help me contact the humans and get them to send some jets over to this damned city.” He said, pointing at Amethyst.

“Oh an you, Sergeant Major, are in charge of any survivors that arrive in this city. I expect there’ll be a few coming from the rescue ships shortly.”

The Lieutenant prodded a soldier next to him. The soldier straightened up even more in alarm and blurted out a ‘SIR!’

“Dice, take the journalist to the armoury and let her choose a gun. And just so you three know, my name’s Lieutenant Altron. The rest of you hup hup! Come on, back to your hideouts! Follow them Sergeant.”

With that he and Amethyst turned and walked towards an underground bunker that some of the soldiers were entering.

Cheetor watched Ulextra follow Dice. He followed them quietly. He had decided he was going to need a more impressive gun in this war than his built in laser.

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

Megatron growled as another thunderous boom rumbled through the railway station.

Sergeants and Corporals were screaming orders, soldiers were grappling for weapons, females were squawking in protest to having their sons sent through the sewage pipes to pop up in the city and fight, and Waspinator was hovering and buzzing incessantly in his ear.

One of the many irritations left him and he slipped inside his office, away from the chaos outside.

How they were going to arm all the unarmed, send them through the sewage system so they could pop up through manholes into the city (hence not giving away their hideaway by all pouring out of the railway station, where they were stuck) and get them to shoot down planes from the ground… Well. From reports coming in, they had so far shot down three bombers. The air force was on its way and that was, although they were late, a relief. Somehow the humans had learnt of the Predacons using Hashlyn as a potential military base.

The silence of his office, which used to me the railway master’s office, was a tremendous relief. He sat down and switched on his computer to see how things were doing outside. A slow smile spread across his face as he heard the reports from soldiers that the Predacon air force was in the area. The Predacon Invisible Stealth Fighters. His smile grew at this pleasing thought.

He lay back in his chair and put his feet up, only to find them falling and crashing to the ground as the table split in two. His laptop smashed to the ground and the table was torn in half by the weight of his legs. Megatron only sighed.

Just then the door opened and the noise of chaos momentarily filled the room before being shut out again as the door closed. Asphyxiate had entered. He briefly eyed the smashed table but got straight to the point. Megatron was glad.

“Sir, the air force, as you probably know, has arrived. The human bombers have been attacked but instead of firing blindly into the air like bumbling idiots, as you expected, they’ve backed off. The Stealth Fighters are pursuing them, but the force has spread out and the air force Captains are asking permission to fall back and guard the city.”

Megatron pondered on this for a moment. Surely the stealth fighters could catch the much heavier bombers, but then again, it would be a waste of time trying to track down a few badly damaged ships. They wouldn’t come back anytime soon. If they had gathered what had happened. Anyway, the human radar system would pick up the fighters and once away from the rest of the force, a lone stealth fighter wasn’t much good. His mind was made up.

“Tell him permission is granted, and run me bath. I’m tired and need to relax.”

Asphyxiate cocked an eyebrow at the latter but nodded and went out to do as he was told. Megatron watched him go with a wary eye.

There was something odd about him. He obeyed orders, was straight to the point, never argued and never questioned. None of his troops ever did that for him back on Earth, save maybe Scorponok. He was up to something…

But then again, thought another side of him, maybe he’s just seen me for the wonderful, intelligent, determined and glorious leader I am.

………………………………………………………………………………………….

Diamond awoke to the sudden slowing motion of the train. She opened her eyes groggily to see weary passengers standing up and stretching, though some looked about worriedly wondering why the train had stopped. She looked to the entrance leading into the next carriage and saw Dusk entering their room sleepily.

“Ladies and Gents, we have now stopped underneath Vixadonia. I ask that you remain seated as this city is too being attacked and although the Maximals are holding the line, it is not safe to enter. We’re going to retrieve some more civilians from this city and proceed to an underground base where you will be armed and split into special units.”

“All right. On this train we have old bots, newborns, sick bots, strong bots all of different professions. We have some athletic bots who we can train as special stealth fighters and then we have bots that can’t fight at all, so we’ll use them according to their profession. Say, a bot who can’t fight who has medical experience will be a nurse or doctor.” He explained

“After we’ve retrieved more civilians from Vixadonia we’re going to divide you. But for the time being, you can divide yourselves up. All who can fight, who are strong and/or athletic get into a little huddle over there,” he said, pointing to the left hand corner of the carriage.

“And all those who can’t fight, divide yourselves up according you your specialties. Medics will be doctors, journalist’s will be snoopers, er, spies. Etcetera.

“Uh…politicians, Energon miners. Maybe you can actually do something productive for once.” He snorted.

“No. You can discuss it with the energon crystals in the mines. You might drive them to insanity and they’ll just roll out of the walls for you.”

Scarlet, who had scrambled on the same cabin as Diamond earlier, looked about worriedly. In the Gitrix war she had been Sergeant Major and she had been promised that she’d be promoted to a lieutenant. But she wasn’t sure if she was ready to command in that position…even though she had written and passed all the exams.

“Well Scarlet, even if I’m not in the correct position to do so, I promote you to a lieutenant. Nothing’s being run according to strict military policy at the moment. Now, if you would kindly follow me and leave the rest to divide themselves into miners and whatnot…” He said, eyeing the politician.

Scarlet stood and they both followed Dusk through a few carriages to the very end carriage of the train. Here she saw about ten male bots, some wearing badges and she presumed this was where the officers were staying for now to work on things.

“I’m going up to help rescue some civilians. We’ve got a rescue team put together so you can stay here and work on all that military jargon of yours. See you shortly.” He said and turned and left.

Diamond watched him go and shook her head. He was so brave and kind, risking his life for others. If only more were like him…

She swivelled round to see one of the bots who had smiled, looking at her curiously.

“Er, yes. Lieutenants, I’d like to introduce you to our little group, if that’s fine with you all?” He said, glancing back at the other nine. They all nodded.

He was interrupted by snorts and giggles from behind. He turned and glowered at them.

“Oh would you quit it it’s old now!” He snapped, referring to the jokes probably made on his surname.

“This is Sergeant Star Strike, otherwise nick names Sergeant SS,” He said, pointing to a navy bot with attractive silver shin and elbow pads. He smiled and lowered his head slightly in respect.

The lieutenant rolled his eyes and moved over to another bot. This bot was a deep maroon with blue torso, shin and arm plates and dark green optics. He had a more serious, cold face.

“Just a playful joke sir. Won’t happen again,” he said, quickly moving away to the next bot. The next bot was a deep turquoise with red plates. He was quite small and thin with a narrow face and steel, silver eyes.

“And presenting, the highest in our ranks…” Vern began, sounding like a ringmaster.

“Good to have you on the team, Lieutenants. It’s time we had a few women to sober them all up.” He said, not smiling but his tone was warm and friendly.

Vern waltzed over to two bots. One was pitch black with orange optics and the other pure white with green optics. Quite strange.

“Here we have the twin Corporals…Hypax and Duncian! No relation, actually, but they are like exact opposites of each other but similar at the same time.”

“They may look serious, but they’re nice blokes once you get to know them.” Vern explained. He moved on to a group of three weary looking bots and touched each one on the head as he said their names.

“Whoa, whoa! Take it easy fellas! Ok, their real names are Bolantex, Margole and Salintor.” He said a bit more seriously.

“Command Sergeant Major, Second Lieutenant and another corporal. And here…” he said as he moved over to the last bot, sitting in a corner.

“Is the handsome, charming, kind Master Sergeant Claret,” he cooed in a more romantic sounding voice. He winked at Diamond.

“I expect you’ll be working hand in hand with a Master Sergeant, Lieutenant.” He said with a wayward grin. She nodded sarcastically.

Claret, who was of this colour, looked at her with apologetic blue optics and shook his head while Vern wasn’t looking. But they had no time to talk before Vern erupted again.

“And fella’s, this is the clearly lovely Lieutenant Diamond and her fine looking friend Lieutenant Scarlet. I expect you’ll be very courteous and kind to these qualified ladies and-”

He stopped and froze as he caught sight of the Predacon symbol on Scarlet’s forehead.

The others mumbled in confusion and Diamond, now realising why he’d stopped quickly cut in.

“Uh, Scarlet is Predacon. But she’s joined the Maximals at her own will. She totally disapproves of the Predacon Uprising and is 100% with us, aren’t you…Scarlet?” Diamond said, looking her in the eyes.

“Y-Yes. Definitely. I’m as Maximal as all of you,” she said, ripping the sticker from her forehead.

“Well ladies and Gentlemen, we have our first convert! Put your hands together for miss Scarlet!” He cried and clapped furiously. The bots below the rank of lieutenant shrugged and the corporals clapped good-naturedly. But the officers didn’t look so sure.

“Probably weren’t many civilians to take. All who were at Vixadonia are either fighting as soldiers there or they are dead.”

“Start working on battle plans, officers.” He said quietly. He put down a small laptop on the floor with live images and reports coming in from a city.

“Because the Predacons have broken the lines at Kiulist.”

A fountain of oil shot out of a hole in a pipe and decorated his face a slimy dark grey. He backed away, temporarily blinded and smeared the fluid from his eyes. Cursing and swearing like there was no tomorrow.

Rattrap watched the human who had screamed at him earlier cry in pain as the oil burned his eyes.

“Damn infernal blazing confounded pieces of #$*& these pipes!” He screamed all in one go. Rattrap chuckled and carried on repairing some minor damage to the walls. The ship had taken a few blasts. One had actually blown through the ship, but the hole was small and Rattrap was just about finished patching it up. Around him mechanics yelled to one another and passed tools to each other. The engine had taken a bit of a knock but nothing serious. Nothing that they couldn’t do without them, even as useless as they were. Rattrap finished the patchwork on the metal wall and rubbed his hands together.

“Gah! I can’t see, confound it! Does anyone have a damned tissue or hankie or something?” The human spluttered.

Rattrap took out a roll of paper from his sub space pocket and tore a piece off and handed it to him. The human snatched it and wiped his eye. He looked at Rattrap and his shoulders drooped.

“Oh, it’s you. Er…thanks.” He muttered in English, lacking a translator.

“Pleasure’s all mine.” Rattrap said back sarcastically and turned and left.

The ship had escaped the Predacon jets and he was surprised at how fast the rescue ships were, but then again, that was their best defence. They also had to get to places quickly. The dying can’t put the process on hold and wait for them.

He headed up the hallway, looking for the bridge. He had to speak to the Captain of the ship.

As he walked towards the elevator a human nurse came around the corner and bumped into him. She cried out and stumbled back, a hand on her head. Rattrap didn’t feel a thing, but for her, running into a pillar of metal was painful.

She looked up groggily to see him, eyeing her curiously.

“You ok?” He asked.

She nodded and brushed herself off.

“Fine. I shouldn’t have been rushing I just-”

She stopped in mid sentence and stared at him.

“What?”

She narrowed her eyes to slits, staring intently at his right hip.

“What?!” He exclaimed.

She snapped out of her trance and looked up.

“There’s a shiny piece of metal floating by your side.” She said bluntly.

“Huh?”

He looked at his side and realised what had fascinated her. He pulled out his apartment card key and held it up for her. It slipped out of invisibility and her eyes sparkled with surprise.

“Eh, it’s a sub space pocket. Handy little thing.”

“A sub…space…pocket? Oh, I’d kill for one of those. Especially at a cocktail party. I’d hide all the savoury snacks and…ah, never mind.” She said, blushing slightly.

Transformers could blush to the extent that their cheeks went a little darker with the sudden and rapid flow of mech fluid beneath, but humans! Their whole faces went a bright red. He put his keys back and grinned.

“Yeah. Been there done that.” He chuckled.

She smiled and her cheeks reddened even more.

Rattrap suddenly hoped he wasn’t making her ill.

“Say uh, you know where the bridge is? I need ta talk ta da captain.” He asked.

She nodded and spun on her heels.

“Follow me.” She said and walked briskly down the passageway. Rattrap followed.

They went up a few floors in the elevator and once there, she led him to two big metal doors.

“In there.” She said sweetly and walked away rather quickly.

He shrugged and went inside.

The bridge of the ship looked like any other bridge, and sitting in a chair, at the front of the room, sat a human in a dark blue uniform with lots of shiny badges and a funny cap. He swivelled round in his chair and saw Rattrap.

“Well aren’t you a funny looking thing,” he said quietly in English. He then switched on his translator, thinking Rattrap hadn’t understood.

“Hello, can I help you?” He asked politely.

Rattrap folded his arms across his chest and nodded.

“Yeah. Tell me why your rescuers don’t have two way translators?” He asked.

The Captain didn’t turn pale straight away.

“They didn’t? Well I asked that they all have-”

“It’s ok. What I’m really here ta ask is where we’re heading. Coz I really need to get to Kiulist and help defend da city.” Rattrap said more seriously.

The Captain bit his lip.

“Uh…our next target of rescue was Hystrider. But our scouts report a strong Predacon defence set up there. So we were going to head down to Olphantex…but I suppose we could land momentarily and you could get on board with one of out scout ships. I know one’s heading to Unlightrest, which is, if I’m correct, just past Kiulist.”

Rattrap nodded thoughtfully.

“If ya could do dat for us, I’d really appreciate it.” He said.

The human’s face twisted into one of concern.

“There are many who want to go to Kiulist?” He asked.

Rattrap shook his head.

“Dunno. All I know is that Tourmaline and I and…and maybe Optimus, if he’s ready, would like ta help fight. I’ll ask da rest of da healthy bots whether dat’s where dey wanna get dropped off.” He offered.

“I’d appreciate that, thank you.” The Captain said with a smile.

Rattrap nodded and turned to leave.

“Oh and, you look pretty funny ta me too.” He called as he left.

He didn’t bother looking back to see the Captain’s facial expression.

He headed down to the lowest floor of the ship to go to the safety cabin. At least he could ask all the transformers together if any wanted to join him. Even though it was safer staying on the ship, they were going to get dropped off soon, and he had no idea where that could be. At least he knew Cheetor and Ulextra were in Kiulist and the city was reasonably safe for ground troops.

Or so he thought.

He entered the stuffy cabin to see hundreds of CR chambers on little wheeled ramps standing quietly in the cabin. There were no bots out of them. Tourmaline was sitting talking to a nurse by the door and she looked up worriedly.

“How are things at the engine?” She asked.

“Under control,” he sighed.

He looked about the silent room, well, silent save the gentle humming of the chambers.

He was going to have to pin up a notice on the wall asking for all bots who wanted to go to Kiulist to meet at the bridge or somewhere tomorrow. There he could get an idea of numbers and report to the Captain. He decided this was a good idea and started looking around for a piece of paper.

“Eh…yeah…” He muttered, looking around the room.

Tourmaline eyed him curiously.

“What you looking for?” She asked.

He faced her with a frown.

“Piece a paper, say, Tourmaline, I got a call from my pal Cheetor. He’s at Kiulist and he says dat da city is being protected by da Air Force. So far they’ve held da lines. I’ve asked da Captain whether we could get dropped off dere, along with other bots who wanna go and help fight, and he said dat he’d arrange dat. I was wondering if ya wanted ta come along? I mean, you could stay here, but den I dunno where you’ll get dropped off.” He explained.

Tourmaline gazed at him with unreadable eyes.

She paused thoughtfully.

“Yes…I think I’ll go. ‘Sides, I can’t leave you there all by yourself. Who’ll look after you?” She said with a slow spreading grin.

Rattrap nodded in sarcastic agreement.

“Dat is a point, isn’t it? So would you please,” he said, getting on his knees, “Please grace me with your presence, fair Tourmaline of da back street palace of Relentrax.”

He knelt and kissed her hand.

She grinned slyly and the human nurse giggled.

“I shall grace you with my presence, Knight of the Round Cheese Cake, so long as you continue this display of gentlemanly sweetness.” She said in a put on posh voice.

“For you, anything, my lady.” He said and rose to his feet.

The nurse giggled and took out something from her pocket.

“A piece of paper and a pen for you, sire.” She laughed.

Rattrap took it with a slight bow.

“Now, I take my leave ta discuss a meeting place wid’ da good captain.” He said and winked at Tourmaline, turned and left.

Tourmaline shook her head, still smiling.

“Oh he’s charming! If only Harold could be like that.” The plump nurse said to herself. Tourmaline shook her head.

“Deception is an art he is very good at.”

The nurse looked at her curiously.

“Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s a nice guy. But then, they all seem like that when they’re interested in someone. And I don’t think I’d be wrong to say that he has a thing for me.” She said, rising to her feet.

The nurse nodded understandingly.

“True, a girl can never be too careful. But honey, I think he’s a keeper,” she sighed as she got up.

“Anyway, I better check on these here CR’s.” She said and waddled over to one of them.

Tourmaline nodded absently, day dreaming on what it’d be like to be married with children. Having to share a house, work for more than herself, feed, nurture and protect and live her life at the same time.

It couldn’t be all that bad, but somehow, she didn’t feel she belonged in that world and she left this dream with a shrug.

“Wonder if I can find a transformer healthy enough to play poker with me.” She said to herself as she quietly left the cabin.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

“They’re retreating already?”

The sergeant bit his lips and shook his head.

“Doubt it. I just think they’re falling back and regrouping. Our shots merely scattered them.”

Jason slumped in disappointment. He was hoping that they’d scare the Predacons away with their sheer numbers. 500 humans came off that ship, and it was apparent that the Predacons were having difficulty just contending with the already badly damaged and mostly unarmed Maximals in the city.

Another explosion ripped through the air and a fast moving cloud of ash came billowing down on them.

“Get down!” The sergeant cried and his group of about thirty soldiers did just that.

Jason cowered behind the fort, covering his hears and squeezing his eyes shut. He could feel the heat from the explosion, but other than that, the suit protected him well.

He wasn’t sure how long he hunched there like a petrified rabbit, but someone gripped him by the arm and pulled him up.

He glanced up to see a humanoid form, but he couldn’t make out much more than that. Grey smoke clouded his vision and he could see nothing. He could hear confused and worried cries and the sound of incessant laser fire still shrieking around him.

“Get up and fight, soldier!”

“Yes sir!”

Another voice rose up behind him.

“But you just told us to stay down, and besides, how can we fight what we cannot see?”

Jason felt a shiver of recognition.

“Louise?!”

The invisible figure behind him moved closer, so he was a hazy grey form.

“Jason? You were on the same ship? Why didn’t you tell me-”

“Shut up!” The sergeant shouted.

“There is no time for conversations. Now get up and fight using your signature finders, you’ve got one installed on your wrist. Otherwise you’ll be cleaning the toilets with your own two hands tonight!”

Jason almost slammed his wrist into his face. He stopped it a millimetre from his nose and sure as anything, there was a little screen dotted with scattering red Predacon symbols, as well as green dots representing humans, blue fox heads for Maximals and the yellow star representing him. He smiled slightly.

“Oh, well, it that case…”

He got up and started sprinting towards one of the Predacon symbols, only to smash into something. He stumbled back, rubbing his head. He looked at his screen, which showed a faint outline of what must’ve been a building. To his horror, the red symbol he’d been chasing was coming up right behind him. He spun around, knelt and aimed his weapon in the direction of the Predacon. He glanced at his screen to see he was straight in line with his target. His heart pounded in his ears as he aimed the laser blindly at the enemy. It was like playing sophisticated paintball on a misty day, except if you got shot…

Suddenly a green blip soared into the red symbol and ahead of him he heard a cry.

He saw the green dot and the red dot tussling across the screen and he frantically waved his gun about, trying to followed the red blip.

A shot louder than the rest because of its closeness rang out and the red blip faded.

The human had killed the Predacon.

He sighed in relief.

“Thanks!” He cried and turned around.

He looked at his screen to see the green dot coming up to him and he turned again to greet…

“Joe???” Jason exclaimed as the flustered human came into view.

“Ah Jason!” He cried, brushing ash off his arms.

“Joe! You just took out a Predacon by yourself!” Jason pointed out.

Joe frowned.

“Actually I bumped into the fellow. We fell down and I dropped my cigarette on him.”

“Cigarette?”

“Yeah, one of the other men smuggled them in. So, anyway, I dropped the cigarette on him, he started screaming in pain and blindly jumped up and down. Must’ve fallen on his foot! Then this shot rang out and ended his misery. Some bozo screamed out ‘thanks’ revealing his position and letting the whole world know where he was and I came up here to warn him not to do that. We’re supposed to be stalking the enemy. Do you know where he went?” Joe asked.

Jason first dropped his jaw in amazement, then screwed up his eyes in disbelief, and then went red with embarrassment.

“Nope. But if I hear him again I’ll tell him to shut it.”

Joe coughed and spluttered.

“Don’t take your helmet off for a smoke. This atmosphere stinks, and there’s too much ash everywhere.” Joe advised.

“Joe,” Jason started.

“Bobby pins?”

Jason ignored the odd comment and continued.

“You do realise that on our right wrist we have a map displaying all the Maximal, human and Predacon signatures, right?” Jason questioned.

Seeing as the smoke had cleared a bit, Jason could make out Joe’s surprised facial expression behind the helmet.

“I think I’m more dangerous to the Predacons without it.” He said and turned and plodded off.

Jason shrugged. Suddenly a siren wailed out and Jason leapt to the ground.

“Predacons retreating! I repeat, Predacons retreating!” Screamed a sergeant.

There were cheers from the scattered men and sergeants started screaming for their troops to carry on chasing them out of the city.

But Jason decided he’d had enough excitement for one day and lay face down in the carpet of ash.

Maybe a Predacon would trip over him and smash his head into the nearby telephone pole.

As Joe had proven, anything was possible.

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

Danzhire woke up with the feeling of a thousand needles sticking into just about every inch of him. He moaned in pain.

Slowly, painfully, his optics lit up and the hazy blur he first saw became a room.

He was in a ‘cage’ with energy bars that if touched would give him a nasty electric shock. Well, judging from the blue glow, it was energon bars that were keeping him at bay. The room around him was dimly lit and there were a number of cages around him; all empty. Ahead of him was a console with a big screen. The screen showed red, green and blue blips that he recognised as energy signatures. The green had to be the EA, the red he could make out as Predacon symbols and the blue Maximals. To his dismay, his army were retreating, the city was now 90% green and blue blip inhabited and they had lost Jalen.

Not that he hadn’t predicted it. Jalen was a cock up. The Maximal police had found a large number of the Predacon assassins at a meeting, arrested them and an alarm was let out. So many of the Maximal buildings were not destroyed and it was the Predacons who mainly got caught by surprise. Being a major energon reserve, they had tried to get the city back, but the Maximal defence was superb and with the humans now joining in…well, end of story.

A door opened to his left and he saw a human walking in, dressed in a dark green uniform with many colourful badges. He’d actually never seen a human other than David, who was always in his suit. And without their suits, they were pitifully small and scrawny. The human eyed him up and down, and this creeped Danzhire out a bit. He found it quite gross that they had eyeballs that rolled in their skulls when they wanted to look at something. The human approached him, hands behind his back with a rigid posture and face.

He switched on a two-way translator on his collar and stared right at him.

Danzhire shifted uncomfortably.

“Name, Surname and rank.” The human demanded bluntly.

Danzhire growled and shook his head.

The human sighed and pulled a remote from his pocket.

The black remote decorated with red and yellow buttons lay coldly in his palms.

“Name, Surname and rank.” The human persisted.

Danzhire refused as he’d been taught.

The human pressed the yellow button and suddenly tentacles of energon slid out from a hatch in the cage roof and grabbed him. Waves of burning energy rippled through him and he roared in pain. The human remained expressionless and held his finger firmly on the yellow button.

The burning pain increased with time and Danzhire could take it no loner.

“Lieutenant Danzhire Blackstorm!” He cried. The energy flow ceased and he was left trembling from the shock with the feeling of a bad case of pins and needles.

“Good. Where are your troops heading next? And don’t be hesitant, Lieutenant. I’m not a patient man.” The human said dryly.

Danzhire did the only thing he could. He went into emergency stasis lock.

Robert watched as the Lieutenant slumped and his optics dimmed.

“Unit in stasis lock.” Hummed the computer behind him.

He shook his head.

“Stupid idiots didn’t disenable stasis lock. Don’t they know anything about transformers?!” He exclaimed as he turned to leave.

“And they claim to be professionals!” He spat, referring to the medics who had put Danzhire behind bars and claimed to ‘neutralise’ him and ready him for interrogation.

The door slid open and he entered the passageway. His wristwatch beeped with a report.

“Predacons Retreating.” The watch hummed.

A smile flickered across his face, but he knew at the back of his mind that this fight had been an easy one as the Predacons were already at a disadvantage. He knew for certain that the battles from now on at other Predacon controlled cities, would be a different story entirely.

…………………………………………………………………………………………..