RESCUE YOU
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Warning: Mild depictions of war and associated violence.
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"The King is crowned,
It's do or die,"
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"Operation: Romeo-Oscar-Papa is a go."
Jack nodded silently, gazing over the outcropping of rock he was crouched behind. The Decepticon outpost in ID-424856 was softly lit by the energon-fueled machinery surrounding it, Vehicons milling about on patrols and securing the land around them. The last scouting party had just departed, Rafael able to figure out the seemingly random pattern of deployments to find the best window of opportunity for their attack.
Unlike his last outing, Jack was placed in the squad responsible for creating a distraction while the second half of the team placed the explosives in place. It was a relatively simple tactic that worked almost every time, mostly because the Decepticons kept underestimating the human race.
"This is Wild Bill," Colonel Lennox spoke into his radio. "Group Alfa is prepped to go. Group Bravo, get ready to stick that glue."
Jack shifted his grip on his firearm, the M4 Carbine strapped around his shoulder and loaded with Cybertronian armor-piercing bullets, courtesy of Wheeljack.
The young man felt a surge of adrenaline as Colonel Lennox gave the signal.
Mirage took front and center stage, the Autobot using his ability to materialize two more forms beside him: Jazz, and Bulkhead. Though the two fakes could not do actual damage, they hoped the Vehicons would be too busy shooting to notice. Speeding through the coarse Earthen dirt in his alternate form, Mirage sped straight towards the Decepticon outpost, not hesitating as Vehicons paused in their work and took notice.
Jack charged forward, weaving through the sparse trees that had started to grow back despite the Decepticons' attempt to clear a half-mile radius around their base. His boots helped him easily kick over what would have otherwise been stubborn saplings and rocks, tripping hazards he did not have to worry about. As adrenaline surged through his veins, the cool wetness of the Idaho forest faded away, replaced with only one feeling: searing hot hatred.
The Vehicons took aim at the approaching Autobot and his human allies, all of which were either on foot or in various vehicles, charging their cannons. Jack raised his weapon, shouting a war cry as he fired.
The M4 Carbine could provide fair aim at a distance less than 200 meters, however the bullet itself could reach over 3000 meters in the right conditions. Though as long as it hit one of the Vehicons, Jack did not really care about total accuracy.
The bullets ripped through the foot soldier's armor without issue, tearing through wires and severing energon lines. Some immediately crumpled as the offensive hit true, Mirage transforming and flying through the air to take care of the rest. Others took a few more hits, each human checking one another to ensure to finish each job.
Jack noticed the sudden change in ground texture as they reached the outskirts of the base, the earth replaced by alien metal which provided traction to its native inhabitants, but left him feeling a bit slippery.
Screams from both sides filled the air as both human and Cybertronian soldiers began to take hits. Jack did not let that slow him down as he continued his advancement, barely pausing to reload when a pull of the trigger no longer produced firepower.
Practiced in combat, the young man spun behind a small barrier and dropped his empty magazine, loading a fresh one before picking up the empty and storing it in one of his pockets. Barely registering the environment around him he launched himself back into combat, only one goal in mind: give the Decepticons a big enough fight to distract them from Group Bravo.
Jack barely heard Lennox shouting orders above the firefight, or Mirage shouting insults at the Decepticons while "Jazz" and "Bulkhead" drove through the base, creating further distractions. The practiced Autobot ducked and wove through the Vehicon soldiers pouring out of various structures to reinforce their friends. Everyone had yet to see any "named" Decepticon which ran the base, which was slightly worrisome. Normally Cyclonus left someone other than drones to monitor their precious bases, especially after the humans began their counterattacks.
Nevertheless, Mirage pushed through, fighting to give his friends the cover they needed to save Optimus Prime. This was what this whole operation depended on - the Decepticons could not figure out what was happening, or the Autobot cause could be officially doomed.
It cost extra energy to create illusions of 'bots other than himself. Mirage specialized in making himself invisible and making copies of himself - that was effortless. Pretending Jazz and Bulkhead were present took careful crafting and light-bending that he was not nearly as familiar with. Coupled with having to ensure he did not step on any of his human allies, this particular mission was becoming incredibly stressful.
He glanced towards the human group as they advanced with him, shooting their primitive guns and ripping through Vehicon armor like it was tissue paper. As disadvantaged as the human race was, they knew how to adapt. The tiny little beings garnered a lot of respect from him.
Jack grimaced as he once again ran out of ammunition, changing clips. He had a fair amount of bullets for this particular assault, but he did not like how long it was taking Group Bravo to radio in. Not even a quick "glue sticking" message had been shared, however . . . perhaps he missed it. Maybe the plan had advanced further than he realized.
"Come on!" Mirage snarled as he finished off yet another Vehicon. "Whoever is running this joint must be a real coward, because right now all I see are a bunch of foot soldiers!"
Colonel Lennox could not help but also wonder why the designated Decepticon leader had yet to show up, becoming a bit concerned.
Like comically bad timing, the ground began to tremble beneath Jack's feet, the young man hearing loud curses as it exploded.
The Cybertronian metal buckled and threw Jack through the air, sending him sailing and smashing into a nearby building. He fell to the ground with a groan, his head spinning as he forced himself to sit up. Trying to focus and figure out what was happening, the young man spit out the dirt that was flung in his mouth. He looked up, almost wishing he had not.
A massive . . . scorpion had erupted from the ground, Mirage grappling with it and avoiding its massive stinger as humans scattered. Lennox had also been flung away, the soldier on his back and shouting as he shot at the Vehicons which remained. The Cybertronian scorpion, in the typical Decepticon fashion, did not take into account the possible Vehicon casualties, just attacking when the time was right.
Mirage turned to avoid a pincher, his energon spattering on the ground from a wound Scorponok had dealt whilst taking them by surprise. The Autobot cursed, berating himself for not thinking it could be a trap.
Jack scrambled back to his feet when he saw the second Decepticon, the Cybertronian leaping from the roof of one of the tallest structures, having remained out of sight until his companion attacked first. He landed on his pedes not far from Lennox, his arm transforming into a cannon and aiming at the human threat.
Jack screamed in rage, opening fire on the Decepticon and charging forward as he did so. He anticipated the bullets to not fully penetrate the armor, likely reinforced with extra shielding gifted to the higher-ranking Decepticons in the ranks. Still, he advanced forward, putting his sights in the middle of the barrel.
The Decepticon hissed and clicked insults in his native tongue, the sensitive wiring of the cannon painfully assaulted by bullets. Lennox took the opportunity to roll out of the way, throwing himself behind debris for cover.
Hateful red optics focused on Jack Darby, the Cybertronian tugging his derma back in a snarl, revealing chipped denta.
"Jack!" He did not know who shouted his name as he kept advancing, reloading and not bothering to pick up the third magazine this time as he continued. The Decepticon said something again in Cybertronian, next taking aim at Mirage.
The Autobot spy rolled, gripping his side and hissing in agony as Blackout's shot skimmed past his helm. He heard the second group radio in the explosives were implanted, but with Scorponok and Blackout present, retreat was going to be nearly impossible. Scorponok could easily burrow underground, and with Blackout's helicopter alternate mode, they could not run. Yes, they could Groundbridge out, but they had to be outside of the Decepticon's base shielding first to radio for help.
"Lennox!" He ordered. "Get your men out of here! I will take care of these Decepticon scumbags!"
Mirage barely perceived the human nodding in confirmation, already having to move to avoid another shot. He disabled his other illusions, instead focusing on himself.
Mirage disappeared, then split into three different people, his doppelgangers moving to confuse his enemies. Blackout snarled, moving to attack two while Scorponok shot at the third in an attempt to find the fake.
Jack ignored the order to retreat, well aware of their situation. Mirage could not take both 'cons at once, especially with his injury. Not even the best Autobots could hope to best two Decepticons at once while pouring energon out on the ground. Instead he ran towards Blackout, finding he had better odds with him than the scorpion - the tail and appendages left too many variables for him to pay attention to at once.
Firing at him, he aimed for the nooks and crannies of his legs, wanting to disable the Decepticon and give Mirage every advantage. He ducked when the offending leg attempted to lash out and kick him, resuming his fire.
Mirage saw him, cursing when the human refused to retreat. He returned fire at Scorponok, leaping forward just as the symbiote lunged with its tail, his servo transforming into a sword in one fluid motion and connecting with the extra appendage.
Scorponok wailed as the dangerous point was cleaved, hanging by a thread of wires and gushing bright blue energon.
"Autobot filth!" Blackout focused his fire on the offending 'bot, snarling and charging forward. Mirage heard the order to hold the charges until Mirage escaped the base, glancing back over at Jack. They had to get out of here, and hopefully get Blackout caught in the explosion.
"Fifteen seconds!" He shouted through his comlink, the order clear. In fifteen seconds, detonate.
"But sir, you and the kid-"
"Ten seconds!" Mirage left no room for argument, ducking past Blackout as he swiped. Reaching forward, his digits wrapped around Jack and held him close, pulling him to his chassis as he transformed around him.
Jack gasped and writhed in panic as he was snatched, grunting when his head slammed back against a plush seat and the Ferrari finished shifting around him.
Mirage gunned his engine through the carnage, Blackout howling in anger behind him as they gave chase. The mech glanced in his rearview mirror as they quickly cleared the Cybertronian metal, still not quite out of the blast radius yet.
"Mirage-!"
His human charge screamed as a pede came down heavily on his hood, pinning him place while simultaneously denting his armor. The Autobot immediately jerked into reverse, but his captor would not let up, crushing him to the ground. Jack froze as deadly red optics gazed through the windshield, focusing right on him and piercing his soul.
"And where do you believe you're going, Autobot?" Megatron hissed.
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Starscream quietly lowered the last downed Vehicon to the ground, his digits coated with energon after he had ripped the soldier's spark out. He held no true regrets for his actions, only focused on what needed to be done. If Megatron was going to be defeated, they needed his equal.
They needed Optimus Prime.
"Group Alfa and Bravo have started their operations," Ultra Magnus announced quietly as they slipped into the main control center of the Spacebridge, those Vehicons already dealt with by Jazz. "We must hurry."
"And you are positive you know the exact coordinates of Optimus Prime?" Starscream asked Bumblebee, who nodded.
"I made sure to log it in my processor," he assured them. "I know where he is."
With that, Starscream gave the okay to enter the coordinates into the Spacebridge. Rafael was poised to patch Agent Fowler in again if the Decepticons realized their bridge was being opened for no apparent reason, but hopefully that was not the case. This time, they had ensured no Vehicon had managed to radio back to New Darkmount what was happening.
Bumblebee worked quickly, double-checking his work as Bulkhead, Wheeljack, and Starscream positioned themselves at the Spacebridge. Jazz and Ultra Magnus were to stay behind while their scout lead them to the resting place of the Prime, acting as sentries to ensure no one unexpectedly walked in on their mission. The last thing they needed was for Megatron to realize his long-time enemy was still alive.
Starscream partially believed that the human resistance had lasted as long as it had because of their determination, but he believed that another reason was because Megatron simply was not interested. If he wanted, he could turn on the Omega Lock and decimate the planet, or unleash his legion of Vehicon troopers to destroy countries that were not under Autobot protection.
Something he feared the tyrant would do to force them to surrender Optimus Prime once and for all.
The massive portal yawned open as Bumblebee entered in the coordinates, greeting the Earth dwellers with its intense pull as it ripped apart space and time. Only Shockwave would do something as psychotic as create a portal which could rip apart the very fabric of the universe - for convenience.
Bumblebee entered first, Starscream following behind with the rest of the entourage. The Seeker took his first breath of Cybertronian air in years, realizing with a start of how much he had missed the scent of his home. Of course, the "smell" of Cybertron was his external receptors reacting to the change in air quality and atmospheric pressure, but it was a "smell" all the same. And it was home.
"This way," Bumblebee indicated to an energon lake, one positioned just beyond the Spacebridge. "I hope we're not too late."
"You got us here as fast as you could, kid," Wheeljack assured him. "And if Prime is anything, it's persistent."
Bumblebee found some comfort in the words, pausing at the edge of the lake. He looked around, ever the careful scout, then gestured to them.
"He's down here."
Starscream did not like the idea of slipping into the lake - it was quite the opposite of his preferred method of travel - but he had been in much more compromising situations. Such as, for instance, being buried under ground.
That was one of the absolute worst days of his life.
Optimus weakly opened his optics as his EM field sensed another brush against it, his gears groaning in protest as excitement coursed through his veins. Bumblebee had returned . . . and he could see Bulkhead and Wheeljack following closely behind.
Another form descended after them, the Prime weakly jerking forward in warning.
"Bumblebee -"
"We're here, Optimus!" The scout seemed ignorant to the Decepticon which snuck up behind him, but even when Starscream gracefully settled next to him, he did not even flinch. "We're gonna get you out of this mess."
"What . . . is Starscream doing here?" Optimus barely had the energy to ask a more elaborate question, the four of them already beginning to delicately move his chassis.
"I ask myself that question every day," the Seeker muttered just barely within hearing levels, his claws wrapping around delicate energon lines with absurd gentleness. "We will explain everything later. For now, we need to move you back to our base of operations without extinguishing your spark. Unfortunately, your damage is much worse than expected."
"I told you it was extensive," Bumblbebee almost sounded offended.
"Yes yes, well, I was trying to be optimistic," Starscream snipped back, waiting for each Autobot to get settled. Optimus tried to suppress a groan of pain, gritting his cracked denta and refusing to make a sound. Pain sliced across his body in agonizing waves, but he did not want that to stop their rescue. Once they stabilized him, then the pain would fade.
"Ready to lift when you guys are," Bulkhead confirmed, Wheeljack grunting in agreement. Once everyone was settled, Starscream gave the signal.
The Seeker nearly forgot that the others did not have thrusters like he did, making Optimus' ascent wonky and finally prompting the Prime to cry out in pain as his body was essentially jerked in two different directions, Starscream activating his thrusters to control his speed while the other three just leapt as hard as they could from the lake bottom. They managed to not lose too much momentum, Wheeljack and Starscream grabbing onto the lake's steep shore while Bumblebee and Bulkhead momentarily struggled to remain swimming.
With another cry from Optimus they managed to drag him up and out of the lake, the sleek Seeker and small scout having a bit of trouble, but Bulkhead proved more than capable of taking on almost three-quarters of the work. He and Wheeljack ended up carrying the Prime, Starscream in the rear as Bumblebee took point.
Jazz and Ultra Magnus were ready for them, the plan going smoother than expected. Within moments the Spacebridge was deactivated, Optimus venting heavily as his systems began going into overdrive.
The movement had torn apart some of the repair work, leaving him leaking energon on the ground, and any wounds that were too massive to fully repair began dripping again. Ironically, the gap where his left arm had once been was one of the few places that was not losing energon.
"Necesitamos un puente de tierra, stat," Jazz radioed to Rafael. "El jefe está perdiendo mucha energía, ¡pon esos mecanismos en espera!"
We need a Groundbridge, stat. The boss is losing a lot of energon, get those mechanics on standby!
A new portal yawned open for them, the group running forward. Humans scattered as energon was flung across the floor, one of the superiors shouting orders as Bulkhead and Wheeljack carefully but swiftly took Optimus to their prepared workstation.
"By the star-bangled banner," Fowler swore in his normal fashion, running across the catwalk and following them to their destination. For convenience, they had long ago made a catwalk that went to every room, that way any humans which were speaking to a Cybertronian could continue to do so without the latter needed to worry about stepping on them once they reached the ground. That, and it was just a faster form of transportation. "What happened to him?"
"Likely the Star-Saber," Starscream said almost too casually, observing the gaping wound in Optimus' chest, which revealed the soft glow of the Matrix of Leadership within his spark. "We need to control his bleeding."
"Working on it," Wheeljack was becoming a little more snippy, a variety of makeshift medical tools in his servos as he prepared to work. The team of humans assembled also began their work, swiftly working on every energon line they could get their small hands on and weld them together, Ultra Magnus disappearing to retrieve multiple energon cubes for transfusion.
Optimus Prime gazed up at the ceiling, able to feel everything that was happening. It hurt to weld, but he could not think straight enough to disable his pain receptors, his processor growing fuzzier with each moment of energon loss. He could feel it trickle past his remaining servo and drip on the floor, some of it pooling around his legs and within his chest cavity.
"Get his energon started," Wheeljack thrust the device towards a returning Ultra Magnus, the commander floundering in surprise.
"I-I have never started an energon line before -" he started, Starscream slightly surprised. He had never heard the normally stoic commander stutter, observing Ultra Magnus as his detached expression slightly warped to annoyed and confused.
"Well, here you go," Wheeljack was not taking any excuses. "Find a vein, not an artery, and stick the line in. There's a bunch of them already exposed, just pick one that doesn't look ready to explode."
Ultra Magnus looked absolutely lost, but one of the other humans was gracious to beckon him to their position.
"This one will work just fine," they informed the commander, carefully helping him start the line. Wheeljack was busy with stabilizing the Prime's core, hissing as it began to flicker.
"Don't give up just yet, chief," he spoke to Optimus.
But Optimus barely heard him, feeling as if all of his senses were being smothered by something soft. Like cotton. As the moments passed he felt less and less pain, and the sweet allure of dreamless sleep tugged him deeper into unconsciousness. He needed the rest . . .
"Prime!" Agent Fowler shouted as his optics flickered offline, Wheeljack using quite a few choice profanities as the spark in front of him pulsed, his EM field appearing to scatter. One of the humans gripped her ears in pain, the pulse crackling across her cochlear implants while another hissed as his defibrillator reacted to the pulse with a beep, threatening to shock him.
"Get the humans back!" Wheeljack snapped, Bulkhead and Ultra Magnus grabbing who they could none too gently. "His spark is flickering."
"Optimus," Bumblebee whirred, his voice wavering. "Stay with us. Please."
There was a tense moment as Wheeljack thrust his digits into the Prime's chassis, trying to close one of the more prominently leaking energon lines, just to buy them time. As he did his digits brushed against the Matrix of Leadership, which flickered in tandem with Optimus' spark.
Then the blue light died, snuffed out like a spent candle.