Newer World Order

Chapter 14: Nowhere to Run

"I knew it," Camille snapped, throwing a hand up toward the bank of monitors showing the chaos that had erupted over the past few minutes. "So much for 'low-risk mission' and the kids 'watching from a distance.'"

"Camille, please, take it easy. They've all been through worse." Roderick winced at the shouting and rapid popping of gunfire coming from the speakers under each screen.

"I'll never understand why you think that would make this okay."

Give it a rest. Clayton glanced at her and turned back to June's monitor. I can understand why she's worried, but most of them can handle it. I just hope they can keep June safe. She's only just started getting in on this.

The view from June's helmet camera bobbed and panned back and forth as she darted down one of the tunnels in MECH's mountain base. She turned, found a half-dozen bodies among the crates and boxes they'd been unpacking, and froze.

"Shit," she whispered, and took several slow breaths to calm herself. She crept slowly past them, pausing to check each one for signs of life, and found none. She shook her head and kept moving -- then she stopped suddenly and turned toward one of the open crates as if something inside had caught her attention. She walked over to it and picked up one of a set of coiled ropes. She glanced around at the shelves and scaffolding MECH had set up to hold flood lights and other equipment. "Hmm."

Clay flicked his gaze over the other monitors. Jack's screen held a close-up of the human-sized doppelganger Arcee had been remote-piloting until something interrupted her connection. Jack had tried to move the body and found it stiff as a board.

"Whatever they did, it caused all the mechanisms inside to seize up," he muttered. "If it can do the same thing to your real bodies ..."

"Campbell's still down," Chromia said. "I'm not picking up any life signs from him. He's completely offline."

"Oh, no," Khalilah said softly. "I've just scanned him, too. His spark's been extinguished. There's no energy output from him at all."

"Damn." Ashanti sighed. "They killed him just by flipping a switch. How'd they learn enough about Cybertronian technology to do that?"

"They captured me a while back, after Knockout and I ended up on the run from the rest of the Decepticons," Breakdown said. "They must've taken enough scans before I escaped to work out what makes us tick."

"Terrific. Guys, I know we've been trying to take as many of 'em alive as possible, but if they don't surrender soon, we're gonna have to take the gloves off before they kill anyone else."

"Even though Moonracer took out the jammers, or whatever they were, we can't afford to assume they don't have a backup ready to deploy." Strika's monitor showed a first-person view of her holding her left arm out as she moved slowly through the trees. She'd instructed the Cybertronian team members to hold that pose while approaching the base and to fall back immediately if their arms were fried the way Arcee's had been.

"I told you not to underestimate them, Optimus," Elita grumbled.

"True enough," Breakdown said. "Even though we're titans on their world, it's terrifying how easily they can take us down."

"We should shoot to kill based on that alone."

"No," Optimus said. "Not all of these people are as fanatical as Silas and Sokolov. We will not resort to lethal force unless they give us no other option."

Clay glanced at Ashanti's monitor as her helmet cam panned over to the two women she and Miko had captured. The dark-haired one cradled her unconscious girlfriend in her arms as she huddled near the mouth of the tunnel. Miko had knocked her the fuck out after the woman sounded the alarm. The still-conscious one caught Ashanti staring at her and shook her head.