When We Dared The Dawn

Chapter 15

XV. Alive

At last the base was empty.

Almost.

Outside it was a worn fall day, skeletal and grey, like the remaining inhabitants. There were more of them in the base than usual - four more humans - but the place was still and silent. Nobody wanted to disturb the fragile Jade, who was wandering around like a lost child, or Starscream, who had spent the last few days pacing and flying, pacing and flying, cursing Galvatron in his stasis.

It was a ghost town here.

Ironhide rolled up the mountain path, having come from downtown Wausau. Its population of thirty-eight thousand still had no idea of the crisis developing nearby. Of course, none of them had missed the vast explosions from the mountain - nor had they missed the military planes in the air, breaching the no-fly zone - but they'd been told by the Marathon County Sheriff's Office that the noise and lights had been due to a training session organised by Fort McCoy in Monroe County, who had wanted to train in a forest setting. After some speculation in the Daily Herald, the story had been swallowed.

'Are you sure we have enough cigarettes?'

Ironhide grunted. 'Hawkins will have to contend with a limited number.'

'Great - more bitching.'

'Hm.'

Leiana was seated in his cab. She'd grown irritated with the quiet base, and had been only to happy to accompany him on his banal trip to Wausau for rations. The Decepticons had destroyed most of their supply warehouse, leaving them with a brood of hungry humans.

'You know' - she took a sip of her soda - 'I have no idea what to say to Jade.'

'It is a difficult situation.'

'But she looks terrible. You'd think we could, like . . . do something.'

'I sympathise. There's little comfort when a mech is missin' his spark partner.' Ironhide turned towards the path to Rib Mountain. 'I still have no idea how Ratchet managed for so long, resistin' Rose the way he did. It's painful enough to keep them at arm's length.'

'Huh.'

She looked out of the window. Ironhide watched her through the wheel-optic.

'You don't look so great yourself, kid,' he said.

'I just keep thinking about Sunstreaker.'

'What about him?'

'About how much I hate his goddamn cara,' she snorted, 'but he keeps on saying I'm his spark partner. I just don't get it, 'Hide - the whole spark partner thing. Sunstreaker is an asshole. Normally I wouldn't even consider going out with someone that arrogant.'

'But you are,' he conjectured.

'I guess he's cute.'

'Hm. Can't say I agree with you.'

She sighed.

A single helicopter flew over. Leiana glanced up at it.

'Who do you think that is?'

'Maggie Madsen and Glen Whitmann. They have come to assist us with Teletraan II.'

'With - wait, what?'

'Teletraan II is a supercomputer of Cybertronian design,' he explained. 'You might have noticed its shell in the recon room. It was constructed by Skyfire and Starscream as a successor system to Teletraan I, the semi-sentient computer than ran the key Autobot spaceship, the Ark. Once it's integrated with Sky Spy, it'll help us track down those punk-ass Decepticons and get our soldiers back. Problem is' - he braked in front of the signal scanner - 'that Skyfire had all the access codes, and without them, we can't activate the system. It's ready to roll, but we're missin' the critical key. We've called in Whitmann and Madsen so lend us a servo.'