Episode 18 - New Recruit
[Amanda]
Thankfully, things smoothed out over the next few days. Bulkhead had woken up and was now in the process of training his legs, since they were close to paralysis. Ratchet said that if he didn't use them now, he'd never be able to use them again. Needless to say, everyone was taking that very seriously, especially Miko, who was currently doing leg exercises with her guardian. Miko's attitude had changed too during this entire time, going from rash and impatient to understanding and, well, patient.
She wasn't the only one to change. The Autobots were guarding us less and less now, since there was a constant need to be ready to go. Optimus especially. Since he started working on decoding the Iacon database, we had barely talked, let alone had the conversations we used to. I knew it was all for the greater good, and that we needed him to do this, but the truth was I missed my time with the Prime I called a father.
Right now, Finn, Jack, and Raf were sitting on the couch, all huddled around Raf's laptop as they surfed the web for any Autobot-Decepticon related content, with Bumblebee watching over their shoulders. It was their job to erase all evidence of the Cybertronians, so they did this quite a bit. Miko and Bulkhead were doing leg exercises, while Ratchet was at work in his lab. Optimus was at the main computers, decoding the Iacon content, and Arcee was popping in and out. I was sitting at the table in the living area with my own laptop, updating the firewalls in my own mainframe.
"Hold on." Raf's sudden confusion caught my attention and I looked up. "What's this?"
Bumblebee buzzed something, which the younger boy translated to, "A Cybertronian escape pod?"
That got everyone's attention. Optimus walked away from his work, Arcee moved towards us, and Ratchet looked up. I got up and moved to sit next to Finn so I could get a look at Raf's screen.
"Here? In Earth's atmosphere?" Ratchet demanded. Instead of replying, Raf sent the image to the base's main computers so everyone could get a look.
"Autobot or Decepticon?" Arcee asked.
The medic shook his head. "Impossible to tell, given the image resolution."
"In any event," Optimus said. "This merits investigation."
"Could be a trap." I piped up, not entirely trusting the fact that there was an escape pod from Cybertron. Any number of enemies could be in there.
"And we're down one bot." Arcee continued. "Should we reach out to Wheeljack?"
"I can hear you!" Bulkhead called, a little annoyed.
Ratchet mostly ignored him, shaking his head. "I don't care if Bulkhead isn't combat-ready. After that revenge stunt he pulled with Miko, Wheeljack can stay rogue."
"An Autobot may be in distress." Optimus said, cutting off all other arguments. "Ratchet, bring your medical kit." Then he turned to me. "Amanda, you're in charge of communication and transport."
I nodded. "On it." Heading over to the human-sized computers near the ground bridge, I hooked up everyone's comms to sensitive so we could hear everything that was going on, and then opened the ground bridge to the coordinates Raf showed me. The Autobots transformed and drove through the ground bridge, disappearing at the other end. Finn, Jack, and Raf moved to stand or sit next to me, so they could monitor the situation as well and I was grateful for their support. Not to long after, the Bots' voices came up on the comms.
"It is of Decepticon origin." Optimus said grimly. We all sucked in a breath
"And the Con inside blew his way out." Arcee added.
There was a sharp noise that sounded a lot like a gunshot, and I looked over at the screen to see a group of Decepticons in the area.
"All those Cons came out of one pod?" Arcee asked incredulously.
"The humans refer to the phenomenon as a clown car." Ratchet supplied and I stifled a laugh, despite the situation. One glance at the others told me that they were doing the same. Still, the number of Cons on the scene was... alarming.
"There is no way they could have all fit in one pod." Raf said. "It just isn't logical."
I nodded. "Agreed. We'll just have to see how this plays out."
Suddenly a new icon appeared on the screen, indicating another Cybertronian had joined the battle from behind the Autobot line.
"Incoming!" Arcee exclaimed.
"Down in front!" A new voice yelled and I saw the icon make a break towards the Cons. This confused me, and I narrowed my eyes as I watched the scene unfold. That was when I realized there had been energon leaking from the pod. Add that with gunshots...
"Optimus, you guys have to get out of there!" I said into the comms. "There's an energon leak on the ground, and if one bullet hits it-"
"Understood, Amanda." The Prime replied, then addressed the others. "Fall back!"
The Autobots raced away from the Cons, taking cover behind some sort of landmass just as a massive explosion erupted from the area; its origin being that energon leak.
"Whoo!" The new voice whooped. "Too hot for you, Cons?!"
"Friend of yours?" Ratchet asked, and Bumblebee buzzed in response.
"Never seen him before." Arcee commented.
"Torching that energon leak." New Voice said. "Pretty good plan, right?"
"Except it wasn't your plan," Arcee snapped. "It was a random shot that almost fried us to a crisp."
"Worked out, didn't it?" I made a face. This new voice guy sounded like a little-
"Thank you, fellow Autobot." Optimus said, being the always diplomatic and calm one. "Your valor is to be commended."
There was a pause before New Voice spoke again. "I don't believe it. Y-You're Optimus Prime! He's Optimus Prime!"
"We know." Ratchet's voice was dull and unamused. Even Bumblebee's buzz to that was in the same tone.
"What is your name, soldier?" Optimus asked.
"Smokescreen, sir!" New Voice- Smokescreen I guess- replied.
"Welcome to Earth, Smokescreen." The Prime said.
"It's an honor to be here," Smokescreen said. "Especially with you."
I elbowed Raf lightly. "Sounds like Optimus has a fan club, and the president just landed on Earth."
The younger boy blurted a laugh, and even Finn and Jack smiled at that.
"Now what?" Ratchet asked, ruining the fanboy moment. "It's not like we can bring him back to base."
"Wouldn't be the first time an ally turned out to be a plant." Arcee said in agreement.
A pause before Optimus said, "I see that you received your training from Cybertron's Elite Guard."
"True enough, though it wasn't more than a boot camp by the time I joined." Smokescreen admitted. "I never even got a proper graduation ceremony."
"There was a war going on." Arcee deadpanned.
"Hey, all I ever wanted was to be a soldier, serve the Autobot cause," He said defensively. "But what I got was security detail at Iacon. In the Hall of Records, of all places."
"Optimus, do you not find this highly suspicious?" Ratchet muttered.
"Smokescreen," The Prime said. "What was your assignment inside the hall?"
"Guarding Alpha Trion during what turned out to be the final days of the war." He replied.
"You served under the master archivist?" Optimus asked.
"Eh, I wasn't thrilled at first, watching the back of an old Bot instead of kicking Con tailpipe. But the big A turned out to be a great teacher and a true friend. I mean, he was the one who petitioned Halogen and the High Council to make you a Prime."
There was a long pause, where the silence made me wish even more than I could actually see what was going on.
"Amanda," Optimus' voice all of a sudden startled me a little. "Activate the ground bridge."
"That's it?!" Ratchet demanded. "That's all you need to hear before inviting him to our base?"
"If my former mentor shared this information, it is because he considered Smokescreen a trusted ally."
[Before]
"Who's Tempest?" Joltsteel asked, his tone confused.
Ace stood, shaking her head. "Tempest was the queen of the Decepticons on Cybertron. She led most of the heavy forces that Megatron didn't lead himself, and was his second in command."
"I thought Starscream was." Blitz, a scout, piped up.
"That was just for appearances." The ex-general said. "Megatron didn't want anyone to know that Tempest had more power than Starscream so that she wouldn't have that big of a target on her back."
"And why did he even care?" Joltsteel asked.
"They were... together." Ace tried to find the right words. "Even before, Tempest and Megatron were fond of each other. Once Megatron started the war, she was right alongside him from the beginning. It was her and Soundwave next to Megatron, and the three of them together were almost unstoppable. It was only once Megatron decided that he wanted all of Cybertron under his command and spread his troops out were we ever able to get the upper hand on them."
Blitz made a face. "How do you know so much about this femme?"
Ace turned away, not answering for a long moment. "She captured me for seven rotations during the war. I learned a lot."
The group turned silent before someone else spoke up.
"What are we to do?" Aries, a tech genius, asked.
"What can we do?" Zodiac said. "We cannot face Tempest head on, for we do not know what kind of power she has on Skores. Perhaps it is just her and a few troops, perhaps it is her and her entire army."
"We have to scout the area." Ace said, her general facade taking over. "Aries, get a team to set up the communication link and make sure to have four links that are strong enough to cover the planet. Blitz, take three more scouts with you to the spot where our fallen comrades were found and try to find out as much as possible, but don't stray too far. We're trying to avoid conflict at this moment in time. As for the rest of us-" She surveyed the others, taking in their unsure expressions. "All we can do for now is sit tight. I don't like it as much as you do, but there's nothing else we can do right now."
With that, she walked out of the room in a slight hurry because she didn't want the others to see her fear.
Optimus, how did you do it?
The thought caused shame to course through her, though. She was the goddess Cleona's chosen one, her champion. She shouldn't feel fear, not in a moment when the group needed a strong leader.
Still, she could never forget the chilling laugh that she heard every time she thought about the queen of the Decepticons.