By the time Verdant finished reprogramming the Decepticon mainframe to suit her new teammates, Ratchet and Wheeljack had repaired the groundbridge, and Ultra Magnus had come up with a plan for assaulting the Decepticon citadel.
The entire plan hinged on whether or not they could disable the Decepticons' fusion cannons. The massive blasters attached to Darkmount made it impossible for human armed forces to assault the building and take it down.
It had been suggested that Verdant could hack into them and disable them, but the idea was shot down. She would require some kind of link to Darkmount, but the Harbinger was so old and Darkmount was so new, that there was no chance of using the tech to access anything more than their comm frequencies.
On the bright side, those radio waves weren't entirely useless. Verdant found an audio file of a vehicon calling for backup and sent it over the channel to Decepticon Command, giving them the impression that a mine was under attack. This, in addition to another distraction created by using Miko and Jack's cell phones, should mean that Darkmount won't have as many soldiers available when they launched the attack.
All of that was simply a distraction. Commander Magnus already had an entire labyrinth of plans for what each Autobot ground would do. Everyone was split in groups of two, aside from himself. Simultaneous attacks on Darkmount itself would distract them from Ultra Magnus—who the Decepticons didn't even know was on the planet.
His job was the take down the cannons. If he failed, Wheeljack and Bulkhead were to take his place, because they were outside and Verdant could instruct Magnus's ship's autopilot to pick them up and take them to the cannons. Arcee and Bumblebee were plan c.
Regardless of how it was done, Agent Fowler and his fleet of human bombers would descend on Darkmount the moment the cannons were disabled, and they would, as Agent Fowler put it, 'put on a fireworks display that would make Uncle Sam proud.'
Apparently that was human jargon for a very big explosion.
But the plan started to fall apart before Agent Fowler even had the chance to make Uncle Sam proud.
"We're taking heavy fire!" Arcee shouted into the comms. "If they circle in from behind—oh frag."
Bulkhead activated his comms moments later. "Shockwave's here!"
Verdant's optics turned white as she controlled Ultra Magnus's ship from afar, redirecting it from where it was firing uselessly at Arcee and Bumblebee's position and flying it over to the wreckers. Heat sensors gave Verdant little warning as Shockwave fired a massive blast at it before she could even engage the weapons systems.
She swerved, managing to avoid the blast hitting a thruster. Instead, it hit the underside of the deck and threw the ship off of its equilibrium, spinning out of control.
From beside her, Ratchet was frantically typing, trying in vain to break through the Decepticon shields and send a groundbridge to Arcee and Bumblebee, despite him being the one to point out that such an endeavor would be hopeless. He was desperate and had no way of helping the others.
Verdant felt truly sorry for him, but didn't offer any consoling words. She was still controlling Ultra Magnus's ship and the wreckers needed her help. They were taking fire from above and from Shockwave.
At least they'd already gotten rid of the dra– predacon.
"Magnus how are you doing?" Verdant demanded.
"Ugh, down," was the response she got. "Megatron. Plan B."
"The wreckers are occupied and Arcee and Bumblebee are pinned," Verdant told him. "We can't–"
"If I knew, I wouldn't tell you," Ultra Magnus growled, clearly not speaking to her.
Verdant's optics widened and she considered just crashing the ship into the cannons' powercore so Agent Fowler could bomb Darkmount already, but the other Autobots had no chance of escaping alive at this point.
She pursed her derma. "Wheeljack, Bulkhead, get into the citadel and assist Arcee and Bumblebee. I will do my best to cover you."
"Shockwave's cannon will tear that ship in half. We wouldn't make it inside even if—argh!"
Autobot signals were surrounded by unidentified heat signatures and Verdant clenched her digits. Her blasts were doing nothing against the vehicons as more and more of them returned from various distractions across the globe. "Bulkhead!? Wheeljack!?"
Ratchet hit the comms. "Does anyone copy!?"
Radio silence.
"Oh no," Miko whispered. "Are we... going to lose?"
Verdant heard Raf sniff. "I think we already have."
Ratchet slammed his servos into the keyboard. "Isn't there anything we can do!?"
"Don't damage our equipment," Verdant reprimanded. "Keep the comms open and remain calm. We are not accepting defeat yet."
"Everyone is down!" Ratchet exclaimed.
Verdant set Ultra Magnus's ship to autopilot and directed it to fly back to base. Her optics brightened back into blue orbs and she turned to look at Ratchet.
"They need back, let's go."
Jack frowned. "Ratchet is a medic, he can't fight!"
"I would only hold them back," Ratchet agreed.
"Hold them back from what?" Verdant demanded. "They've already been captured! Get your sorry aft up and let's go."
"I'm going too!" Miko decided. "Raf and Jack can man the comms."
"Fine," Verdant held out her servo for the girl.
Before Ratchet could protest, the comms lit up again.
"Ultra Magnus to base, Optimus Prime is alive. He is alive and quite well."
Ratchet gasped and rushed back to the comms. The three humans began to cheer. In seconds, Verdant was connected to the monitor again and sent Ultra Magnus's ship back.
The tide was turning again.
"Verdant, I need a ride!" Ultra Magnus ordered.
She sent the ship straight to him and watched as his signal jumped down and onto the top of the ship. The commander stood up as she rode around and shot at the vehicons, taking down flier after flier as they made their way to the bottom of the citadel.
The wall exploded, and Arcee and Bumblebee emerged moments later, firing behind them. Ultra Magnus and Verdant shot into the hole, provided cover fire as the two joined the wreckers.
Above them, a massive explosion rocketed the citadal, and Ultra Magnus contacted Fowler. "The cannons are useless, proceed to take Darkmount down! Autobots! Retreat!"
Verdant held her breath, optics wide. They were going to win.
The two ground teams evaded Shockwave and raced away from the tower, leaving Agent Fowler and a small fleet to fly toward Darkmount. Moments later, the ship shook with the shockwaves of the explosions.
"Autobots, we have achieved our objective. Return to base."
Ultra Magnus opened the hatch and jumped into his ship. Verdant relinquished control to him and her optics turned blue again. Ratchet pulled the lever to the groundbridge, opening a swirling blue portal into their base. The Autobots were walking through soon enough.
"I knew you could do it!" Miko ran over to them, giving Bulkhead and Wheeljack the biggest grins.
"Of course we could," Wheeljack scoffed. "We're wreckers."
Bulkhead smiled happily and let Miko climb up his leg.
"You good, Bee?" Raf questioned.
"Jack," Arcee pulled a piece of shrapnel out of her arm and held it up. "I found your clone."
"Really, Arcee?"
"Eep!" Ratchet started grabbing Autobots. "Into the med-bay! Now!"
Verdant caught sight on a new Autobot, his shoulders bearing the elite guard insignia. Quickly, she took a picture of him and ran him through her database.
Smokescreen. Served under Alpha Trion. Fresh guardsmen graduate—relatively. Not much combat experience on his resume, but then again, he must've been here on Earth for some time.
"Never met an Autobot with white optics," Smokescreen appeared in front of her. "Oh. Now they're blue."
"Yes, they do that sometimes," she told him. "You must be Smokescreen."
"You've heard of me?" he asked in surprise.
"No."
Smokescreen scratched his helm. "Oh."
Ultra Magnus cleared his throat, and Smokescreen jumped a little. "Soldier, go assist Ratchet in the med-bay."
"Yes sir," Smokescreen glanced back at Verdant and smiled before running off.
"Verdant," Optimus Prime looked down at her from Ultra Magnus's side. "It is good to see you again."
"Ah," Verdant's optics flicked up and down his very, ripped frame, and she nodded blankly. "Yes, Optimus Prime, sir. It is an honor to be here."
He winced.
"Um," Verdant looked toward the hallway. "If you would excuse me, sir, I will go help Ratchet attend to the wounded."
"Of course," Optimus nodded. "I will be there in a moment. Ultra Magnus and I must discuss a few matters first."
Verdant nodded and turned away, making her way into the med-bay. It was a disaster zone.
"Bulkhead, I needed that!" Ratchet smacked the green-wrecker upside the helm and snatched away a tool before throwing the crumpled remains across the room with pinpoint accuracy and a little bit too much bloodlust. Wheeljack was hit dead on and stumbled backward before raising his servos in surrender. "If you try and sneak out of here one more time, Wheeljack, I'll weld your aft to the berth!"
Ratchet whirled around and pointed at Bumblebee. "Stop poking your wounds, you imbecile!"
Arcee tilted her helm in confusion, and a second later she was in stasis lock, falling off the side of the berth. Ratchet's pede swung out and he kicked her back up before she could hit the floor.
"Ratchet!" Smokescreen jumped toward the medic for help, but before he could get much further, Wheeljack lunged across the room from the top of a shelf and tackled him. The two disappeared behind a berth.
"Keep him distracted!" Ratchet grabbed Bulkhead's arm and yanked, dislocating it. The wrecker squealed and Ratchet pulled a lodged chunk of metal out before relocating the arm.
Smokescreen's servo shot up and he grabbed onto a berth, but was slowly dragged back down behind it. Arcee suddenly sat up, optics wide, and punched Ratchet in the face. The medic was immediately knocked out and landed on his back.
"Oh my primus, Ratchet, I'm so sorry," Arcee tried to get up again, but passed out on top of him.
Verdant pinched between her optics before putting her servos around her intake. "EVERYONE GET ON A BERTH OR I'LL SLAG YOUR AFTS!"