AUTHOR COMMENTS:
Okay, here's we go. This is Jazzy's first attempt at TF on the Web. Hope you like it. If ya do, E-Mail me. If you don't, E-Mail me. If you've read this far into the notes, E-Mail me at..well, you get the picture. :-) Jazzy thirsts for comments, good or bad, intelligent or unintelligible, any thing from anyone. As before, enjoy!
It'll probably come to you during reading, but to make sure you're not put off, the first few chapters are on ol' Cybertron. Real ol' Cybertron. Real, real..ya get the idea. The character profiles are at the back, just in case. Oh well, think that's about it. Onto the story!

* * *

Prologue

The little robot walked with barely contained merriment as he drew closer to the city. Walking with measured steps so as not to show his ecstatic mood to soon, he finally came upon the outskirts of the towering masterpiece of Crystal City. "My masterpiece.." he whispered to himself quietly, unable to conceal his joy any longer, and it burst out of him in the form of a gigantic grin.

"Hmmm? What was that?" asked another, much larger robot, from behind the smaller one.

Omega Supreme looked down on his small friend as the little robot nearly jumped out of his boots.

"Ack! Don't sneak up on me! I hate it when people sneak up on me!" the smaller transformer, Piledriver, shouted, shaking what Supreme saw as comically small fists in the air to punctuate his words. Piledriver's paint job, bright gold and red, glittered in the light of day (although day was a relative term, considering Cybertron had no sun) and he jumped from one foot to the other like an overly excited child. "Look! Isn't it perfect? It really has to be my best yet and I had to get them to import the crystalline material you know, from off planet as well, and the energy used to build it was enormous, but I really think it was worth the effort, I mean..."

The little transformer could have babbled on for hours, but Omega wasn't really listening. While Piledriver was a good friend, he was a little to rambunctious at some times. But it was understandable today. considering his achievement.

"..yes, the best architect on all of Cybertron! They said it and I can't help but agree, seeing as they're completely correct. I should have been holographing the meeting!" Piledriver closed one optic and put his metal thumb in the air, looking to Crystal City with his open optic.

Omega rolled his eyes and stifled a groan. Piledriver's ego was bad enough before, but with the last meeting of Cybertron culture council, and his award for the design of Crystal City, the little robot was becoming unbearable. "Yes, it is a very lovely city, " the guardian agreed, "But the Constructicons have to come back again. Something sprung a gasket or blew a fuse inside, so they'll be over to fix it pretty soon."

"Again? Maybe I should put more effort into practicality instead of design...Nah! They can fix it, I have the utmost confidence in their abilities. And yours too, friend Omega. I'm sure you can keep my city safe." With that, Piledriver got a far off look in his eye as he stared off at the horizon. "Much better than those others.."

Supreme shook his heavy head. Piledriver, premier architect though he was, had not one building to show for his work other than Crystal City. His first three cities, farther north and beyond the horizon, were now little more than rubble. Some of the first attacks by the megalomaniac leader of some sub-group of Transformers who called themselves Decepticons. Omega Supreme had forgotten the leader's name, but he was sure that whatever those little junk punk robots threw at him he could take. "Nope, you don't have to worry about that happening. That is why I am here."

"Right! And if I ever catch you slacking, taking an energon break without permission," the architect said with a grin and a cutting motion across his neck. "And now, I am off. To a debate! You should hear it! A bunch of these blowhards talking about a war! What war? With who? Primus, people can get touchy! One says, I forgot his name, Octimpus or Acnemus or something, 'Oh, we have to stand and fight!'," Piledriver mimicked in a high-pitched, shrill tone, "And the other one goes 'No! Run away, run away! We must leave this place or we'll all die!' It's like some overblown cosmic holo-drama! That's what you need out here. A big holo-screen. I mean, its got to be interminably boring...." and he kept talking to himself as he transformed to his flashy vehicle mode and drove off, zooming back and forth.

Omega smiled to himself and shook his head. Turning, he raised his hand and waved as he heard the Constructicons rounding the bend, their leader Scrapper already in sight.

Chapter 1

Jumpstart stood in the midst of the gathering crowd. He looked from side to side and craned his neck to see over the heads of the others in the assembled masses. Where is he? 'Don't worry, am I ever late?' he says. Paah! I knew I should have stopped at the lab. Jumpstart stumbled as the group swayed and moved to the right, and a hand shot out to grab his arm and return him to his feet. "There you are! I have been looking all over for you."

His companion, a medium sized transformer of black and white, his most distinguishing feature a pair of blinking panels set on each side of his head, stood beside him. "Um, yes, I know. I was kinda detained," he blinked in answer.

"Well, maybe I should have been fashionably late as well. Look at this crowd. Half of Cybertron has to be here! At least we aren't all out of our minds to stay."

"Um, yea," blinked his companion.

"Is something on your mind? What's wrong?," Jumpstart asked, watching the other Transformer curiously.

"I'm not going."

"WHAT!! What do you mean you're not going? I thought you agreed with Stargazer? Its suicide to stay here, especially for us," Jumpstart turned to look the other robot straight in the optics. The crowd swayed back and forth around them, but both stood stock still.

"I've been talking to Prime, and he.."

"Prime! See, he's already trying to get recruits for his side. He's trying to start a war even faster."

"Prime's trying to stop a war. But he needs people to fight with him. It's better than just running away and letting things sort out, then coming back after the fight's over," the other robot blinked again, taking a step forward, trying to explain his position.

"No. It stupid for a bunch of scientists to stick around when the planet's gonna be blown to kingdom come and back. What are you supposed to do anyway? What could a bunch of warmongers want with a quantum theorist?" Jumpstart crossed his arms over his chest, staring defiantly.

"I've got some designs for some new weapons. I want to build some better gear for the Autobots. I want to be an Autobot. You can stay too. Why don't you join the Autobots?" the other robot almost pleaded. He didn't want his friend to leave.

"Weapons designs! You're not a scientist anymore. They're turning you into just another grunt in their war. You won't come, but I can't stay here. I'm sorry friend," and with that, he turned away, losing himself in the crowd.

And Wheeljack watched Jumpstart go, in silence.

* * *

Stargazer stared vacantly at the crowd from the starship's window. So many. What are they all doing here? Do they believe what I'm saying, or are they so afraid they'll do anything to get away? Everything was working out as planned, and yet he felt so uneasy. There were a good forty robots milling about, waiting for the boarding of the three crafts, waiting to take off from their once and only home, waiting to discover a new world with him. But he had the bitter feeling that too many were simply running, with no destination in mind, just looking for a quick way off the planet. And what bothered him most was, he was beginning to understand the urge all too well.

"Stargazer, are you alright? Are you listening?"

"What? Of course. What was it you said, Streaks?" he shook himself from his reverie and turned toward the transformer addressing him.

Streaks stood with her gunmetal arms crossed over her gunmetal chest, tapping her gunmetal foot impatiently. The female meteorologists, a premiere scientist in her poorly stocked field of specialty, rolled her eyes and smiled. "I said Prime's here and he wants to speak with you. Should I sick Avatar on him?," she asked, smiling in Avatar's direction.

Avatar, who consisted of three large, stark black transformers, cocked their heads in confusion. "But Streaks, we would never do anything to.."

"She was only joking Avatar," Stargazer smiled as well. Everyone knew Avatar wouldn't hurt a retro-rat. "No, no. Please, I would very much like to speak with him. Have Tracker send him in."

"Tracker! Haul your can in here and bring that rust bucket Prime with you!" Streaks shouted down the hall and banging her foot on the floor to punctuate her request.

"Have you not ever heard of radio waves, Streaks?" Avatar asked with a triple echo.

"Tact never was your strong point, was it?" Stargazer shook his head as Tracker motioned a large red, white, and blue robot into the room. He stood up and greeted the newcomer warmly. "Greetings to you Optimus Prime. I was hoping to speak with you before this exodus began. Streaks, Avatar, Tracker, would you mind leaving us for a few moments?"

The five robots looked at him strangely, shrugged their collective shoulders and left the room.

"I wished to speak to you as well, Stargazer," Prime said when the door swished close behind them.

"To dissuade me from this foolish course? A good many people have tried it before you, and they did not succeed."

"I have not come to stop you. I merely wish to know why."

"Why what?"

"Obviously, why you are leaving Cybertron and dragging all these others with you," Optimus said with a trace of youthful indignation.

"Dragging? I don't recall tying anyone up and throwing them in the cargo holds."

"Really? What about Piledriver?," Prime asked, crossing his arms in a perfect mimic of Streaks' motion.

Stargazer's eyes flashed for a brief instant. "Piledriver is a special case. His friends brought him here. They think it is best for him to leave Cybertron and I agree with them."

"Where's his say in the matter?"

"What would you have me do? Set him loose again? He's been stalking Omega Supreme for over a vorn. I'd love to hear what he'd do if he actually caught up with that guardian. It all started because of your war, when Crystal City was destroyed."

"It is not my war."

"Please, I did not mean it that way. But, whose war is it, then?"

"The Decepticons began this war, but the Autobots will have to finish it. We can't run from this fight. Cybertron's already lost a great amount of population with the first pacifist's exodus. No one has even heard of them since they left."

"Indeed. I am sorry if I don't seem particularly patriotic, for I don't believe as most of the participants in this mission. They believe both sides are warmongers, but I would hope I don't seem as blind. But nor can I blame the Decepticons," Stargazer went on quickly as Prime's eyes lit a bit in shock.

"They are merely fighting for survival. No, don't look at me like that, I'm definitely not a 'Con sympathizer. But, in a warlike society, as the Decepticons want, there will always be some peaceful people. The scientists and the engineers and the like. But in a peaceful society, you cannot have any warriors. Soldiers are thoroughly unnecessary and can lead to problems. So they are fighting for their conquering lives, and there are few ways to settle any of this in a peaceful manner. You can either persuade them to your side or.."

"Diplomacy is always the best course of action, in any situation," Prime stated with conviction.

"But do you really think it will work on one such as Megatron? The best course may not be the right course. The only other chance for peace is to destroy an entire race of transformers, and I will not be a party to that, no matter how necessary and yes, I do see it may be necessary. Perhaps I am a robo-chicken for running out, and letting you and your people do the dirty work," Stargazer chuckled to himself and glanced out the window again. The two other ships were filling up, Tracker guiding robots into one, Avatar into the other, and though he couldn't see her, he knew Streaks was showing the last few to private quarters on the ship he now occupied.

"Perhaps you are wiser than I first gave you credit for, Stargazer. You have your reasons to go and I have my reasons to fight. I had better take my leave now. I cannot say I enjoyed our chat, but it was very.....enlightening," Optimus Prime turned, and moved down the hall with the steady gate of a leader, and Stargazer strolled behind with the shuffling steps of someone made to follow, yet forced into leadership.

They both stepped out on to the brightly lit Cybertron surface, shining from the bright gold metal of the ground below them, and from the nearly blinding haze from a sun the planet was passing quite closely to. The two leaders faced each other in front of the ship and clasped wrists.

"Till all are one, Stargazer."

"And we can return again. Till all are one, Optimus Prime."

The Autobot leader turned away and as Stargazer stepped back up the ramp to the interior of his starship, as his foot left the golden Cybertronian ground, he knew somehow that he would never see his home again. He knew he would never return.

Chapter 2

The bright sunlight poured over the green plains, giving the new morning dew still sticking to the grass the glitter of diamonds. Only the soft sound of splashing from river-dwellers in their home disrupted the perfect quiet of the day. Then a low frequency thumping thundered through the ground, shaking away the illusion.

"Greetings to you Stargazer," Tracker smiled, still lying on his back, optics closed.

"And to you, friend. What are you doing?" the much larger transformer sidled over to the barely medium robot, finding a place to sit on a nearby rock.

"Oh, just enjoying nature. Nothing like it."

"How can you stand it? Everything is so dirty, Tracker."

The robot opened his optics and smiled wider, sitting up and brushing dew and loose grass from his green and brown chassis. "Aw, you spend to much time in the labs, friend. This is where you make the real discoveries about this strange world." Tracker lifted his arm and began to replay an eerie, alien tune.

"What is that?" Stargazer asked.

Tracker motioned him for silence, still playing and holding his arm aloft. Suddenly, a streak of silver flashed from the woods just to the east, moving at lightning speeds and braking on air as it set it self on the smaller transformer's outstretched appendage. He began to stroke its head affectionately.

"What is that creature?" Stargazer stared in shock at the strange thing. Covered in thin, silver fibers that fluttered as it moved, it stared back at him with alien optics unlike any he had ever seen.

"This is Turbo. An organic form of quasi-intelligence."

"Amazing. You can't be serious. Organic intelligence? Organic life?" Stargazer smiled and crossed his arms, sensing a joke was being played on him.

"Very serious. He's quite smart actually. I've been trying to decipher his language, but its been hard so far. We don't exactly see eye to eye. You'd probably do better. You can at least fly," Tracker smiled and rolled up to his feet, the feathery creature still clutching his arm.

"Old dreams? No place here on this new world, my dear Tracker!" Stargazer laid a hand on the smaller robot's shoulders, chuckling.

"Oh, even if I had gotten a flying form, if I'd ever gotten the courage up, I'm to much of a robo-chicken to ever set a foot off the ground." With that, he raised his arm up at a hard angle and sent the creature on it flapping upwards, circling the two from the air.

"Come on, let's get back to the city," Stargazer said, heading down toward the paved road they'd laid down to their home.

"No, I'll walk back to Triptohex. You go on ahead. I just want to be alone out here for a little while, no offense."

"Of course not. I hope your Turbo is as talkative as you say, 'cause its a long way back," smiling, Stargazer transformed, head and arms disappearing into his chest, legs moving into wing position, unseen hardware expanding and shrinking, and he took off with an incredible blast toward the city of Triptohex.

Tracker moved up alongside the paved way, still walking on the dirt sides, kicking clods of earth every few meters. He looked up and saw Turbo gliding silently above in great banking circles. Then suddenly, the creature was no longer silent. It squawked and careened in terror as the roar of thundering engines filled the air. Looking up, Tracker saw the noise's source coming from the east. Decepticons. And they saw him as well.

He ran and transformed, the changing into his low-riding dunebuggy-esque mode taking precious time he didn't have. Tracker radioed to Triptohex, breaking through regular channels on the emergency frequency. But he barely got the name of their attackers out. Slices of laser fire parted his roof and lanced into his engines. He screamed in agony, swerving into a tree and bringing it crashing down on him. Tracker began transforming back to robot mode when he found he couldn't ram the great plant baring his way, but it was all for naught.

"What's up Auto-twit? Time to say good-night," sneered a huge jet warrior who landed in front of him. He didn't get a word out before a searing bolt blasted out of the Decepticon's arm mounted laser, shearing the side off the helpless robot's head.

"Tracker! Come in! What did you say? Do you copy? Please repeat!" Micro was nearly screaming into the com. board. The midget transformer tapped the board's keys with no response, slamming his tiny fists on it in fury in a gesture very out of character for the normally calm little robot. "Streaks! We've got a problem. Streaks, where the zark are you! Avatar, Piledriver, anyone!"

"Primus! Don't get your diodes in an uproar, Micro. What is it?" Streaks finally waltzed into the communications room, Avatar trailing along behind her.

"An urgent message from Tracker! He wasn't clear, but I think I heard him saw 'Decepticon'! What could they want here?! We have to do something."

"Decepticons?"

"Not here."

"You must be mistaken," the Avatars assured the little scientist.

The assurance came too late. The gaudy gold and red form of Piledriver raced through the halls, shouting in hysteria. "Decepticon attack!! Attack!!!"

Streaks would have liked to shut the hysterical fool up, but she had more important things to do. "Avatar, where's Stargazer? We better get moving, now." She turned and was racing out of the building, into the new morning sunlight, Avatar right behind her, and Micro's tiny legs leaving him far behind, bringing up the rear. He never got outside.

As Streaks and Avatar exited, the glowing sun glittering on her gunmetal form and yet bringing no shine to the stark blackness of the trio, the building shattered like a creation built of microchips. Tons of metal came crashing down on the little robot still located within.

"Micro! Avatar, transform to Megavatar!" Streaks shouted at the dark trio.

They stared at her. "Streaks, we cannot harm anyone. We cannot do that."

"Do it! Transform now and take them out! They just killed Micro and they probably killed Tracker! You're the only thing close to a defense we have!" She threw a heavy punch into the nearest Avatar, doing little more than denting her own hand on the rock hard chest she struck.

"As you wish," they answered. "MEGAVATAR!" the name echo three times as the trio shifted, shrank, expanded. Two Avatars split, forming legs and arms, attaching to the third, and in seconds, Megavatar was born, a massive, towering, shadowed creature who swung out at the scattering Decepticons who skittered through the air on all sides.

"To late for you, sweetie," snickered one Decepticon as he broke away from his hiding place behind the crumbled building Micro laid buried under. He pointed his laser directly between Streaks' eyes and asked in sickly sweet sarcasm, "Now, where might your energon reserves be, darling?"

He had no time to react as she swung a leg up and sent him sprawling. An internal struggle raged within the female transformer as she tried to decide between racing for the gun, or racing away. She took too long. As she moved to grab the gun, the Decep had already recovered, and was swinging it her way. Streaks ducked and ran, wishing for all her life that she had a vehicular transformation instead of her scanner mode. Laser blasts raked the ground around her feet as she moved through the city. Closing her optics to concentrate on speed, Streaks was taken by surprise when she finally opened them and found herself on the southern edge of Triptohex, having stopped right before the cliff drop.

"For the love of mini-microchips!" she whispered to herself as she looked down into the dark chasm and onto the swirling waters below.

"End of the line, honey. I'll just have to find the energon the hard way.." came the voice of her pursuer. The laser bolt seared her shoulder as she ducked once again and grabbed the Decep's ankle. Pulling it out from under him, she tossed him toward the cliff drop. But she wasn't ready for his retaliation. He smiled and grabbed her wrist as he flew out over the yawning gap and pulled her along as well. She screamed in fear as they began to plummet and screamed in fury as her enemy transformed to jet mode and blasted upwards and away. The screams transformed to shrieks of agony as she struck the cliff edge again and again, cracking her head and chest, shattering her limbs. As she struck the water below, as she was dragged down by the current and her own weight, as the liquid poured into every new crack and crevice, shorting out every circuit, Streaks was granted oblivion.

Megavatar swung out in blind strokes, knocking an errant Decepticon who'd strayed too close so hard he flew from the city. Other Triptohex transformers swarmed around his feet and he took care where he stepped. Turning to the right, he lanced out an arm and threw another enemy up and away. Over the building tops, Megavatar glanced to the north, at gathering of Decepticons moving forward. With all the speed his gigantic form aloud him, he too moved forward.

He found a gruesome scene awaiting him in their wake. Under chunks of a building, one of the Triptohex transformers lay with his leg and half his arm missing, optics frozen open. Megavatar tried not to look as he passed another casualty and another. Legs and arms slashed into the Decepticon group as he came up behind them. They scattered like flies, and came swarming back the same way.

"No! Get away! You can't destroy anymore of my work! Leave it alone!" came Piledriver's voice as he made his last stand outside of Triptohex's main laboratory building. His voice rose an octave with every word, as he plummeted into hysteria just as surely as Streaks had plummeted down the cliff face.

"Piledriver, run." Megavatar still spoke with his three-way echo, with an almost emotionless tone that he could not betray, even though his rage threatened to overpower him.

"Better watch out for yourself!" shouted one of the attackers as he sent a laser lance slicing along Megavatar's knee. The giant bellowed in agony as the leg-Avatar's pain centers lit up like a christmas tree. Three other Decepticons focused fire on Megavatar's legs until finally the colossus toppled and shattered into Avatar. The leg-Avatar fell to the ground in pain as they separated, but before the other could react, the Decepticons raked the fallen robot with laser fire, leaving vicious scars on every surface and sending the others into a lock-up. None of the Avatars moved or put up any fight as the enemy dispensed with them.

"No! Get away from him you monsters!," Piledriver yelled, moving away from the lab building and jumping onto the nearest Decepticon's back, pounding his fists on the metal with a hollow clang.

The other robot nearly broke out laughing at the puny strikes. He flipped the smaller robot off and sent him sprawling to the ground. A wicked grin twisted his face as he brought his down foot on the other robot's chest. "What's a matter? Oh, him? Don't worry about your little would-be defender over there. In fact you won't have anything to worry about in one second." And he was right. Everything blanked as the Decepticon's foot came down on Piledriver's chest, shattering it, and the flash of a laser was the last thing he ever saw.

Chapter 3

"Primus...," Stargazer whispered, wiping away a trickle of lubricant streaming into his optics line of vision. He surveyed the scene with an emotionless face, straining to keep his wits. So much destruction......

He'd arrived moments after the battle had begun and had fought as valiantly as any unarmed creature could against a vastly armed opponent, as hard as any of the other residents of Triptohex, and still he blamed himself. He had not been there when the fighting had begun. If he had, he might have been able to do something. But as it was, the city was nearly leveled in the attack. The main lab, the residency, the cargo holds, and the energon reserves had all been blasted down or ransacked, and the Decepticons had left a trail of casualties.

"Tracker? Tracker, where are you?" the Triptohex leader looked around for his second-in-command. When he couldn't find the green and brown robot, he searched for Streaks and Avatar, and again he was disappointed. Where were they all? And then the thought hit him. No, they couldn't have got them all. Could they?

"Um...Stargazer?"

The transformer turned to the medium sized yellow and violet robot who laid a hand on his arm. Stargazer tried to remember his name, but it escaped him. "Yes?"

"Here, the casualty list. We...uh, we dragged the river downstream."

He really didn't want to look at the list, didn't want to know who they dragged from the river, but he took the pad anyway. As he began to scan over it for names, Stargazer asked, "Who did you pull from the river?"

The other robot twitched and rubbed his hands nervously. He finally blurted it out. "It was Streaks," and he turned and left the room in quickly shuffling steps, leaving the city commander to his skimming.

Stargazer closed switched his optics off for a moment to concentrate on the news. My second in command. A friend. I thought I was protecting them when I led them here, but now she's dead. How's that for protection? he stopped himself as a morbid laugh rose in his metal throat.

He let his optics click on and scanned the pad before him, skipping over the details of the death, to the names. Their microbiologist, Micro, a seismologist, Shakes, the clumsy botanist known as Trample. Zinc, a geologist, and Piledriver, who'd died defending Avatar and his Main Lab creation, and Avatar himself. Another friend gone, he thought to himself.

The door buzzer shook him from his contemplation of the pad, but he stood stock still just a few seconds more, to shocked to connect the sound to anything. Stargazer turned away from the table he'd been leaning over. "Yes, enter."

The door slid open, revealing a medium white and gray transformer Stargazer knew as Jumpstart. "Greetings to you, Stargazer. I wished to speak with you. Is this a bad time?" Jumpstart asked, still standing in the doorway.

"No, please come in. What is it you wish to talk about?"

"A defense force," the robot told him, moving into the room a step, as if ready to sprint for an exit in a moment if the need arose.

Stargazer scowled slightly. "I thought you were a pacifist scientist. You seemed to be a strong advocator against violence on Cybertron."

"Yes, but even these ideas cannot be taken to extremes. No one can overlook what has happened today. We don't even know why they came here."

"Its very obvious. We are a target, and a very easy one at that. This planet has vast resources. That's why we chose to put the settlement here in the first place. All the Decepticons need to do is wait for us to process it into pure energon, then swoop down and snatch it away. You are very perceptive. We do indeed need a defense force. But are we willing to compromise our beliefs to such an extreme as each resident of Triptohex being handed his own weapon, trained to fend for himself?"

"No. There are to many completely devout pacifists. And too many scientists like myself. We are not warriors. But I want to build warriors."

The statement took the larger robot by surprise. "What? You want to build warriors? What good would these mindless automatons be against a complex destructive force like the Decepticons? It would never work," Stargazer shook his head, placing his hand to his forehead and again finding leaking lubricant. He would have to have it looked at after he shooed Jumpstart out.

"No, not automatons. Real warriors who'd fight only when necessary," Jumpstart took one more step away from the door and into the room.

"How do you intend to build more transformers without Vector Sigma? It is an impossibility. Perhaps the strain of the days events has gotten to you as well," he replied, rubbing his forehead. He wanted to get rid of Jumpstart, get his head checked out, and find Tracker. At least he had one good friend whose name had not shown up on the pad. He really wanted to assure himself that Tracker was alive, that his old friend would be there tomorrow, in his little glade, waiting to watch the strange event of the sun rising.

But Jumpstart was not going to be brushed off so easily. "I'm perfectly functional, I assure you. I have a theory and I believe it will work! If it does, we'll have our defense."

Slumping into a chair, Stargazer huffed out, "Alright, what is this theory of yours?"

Jumpstart moved forward yet another step, finally allowing the door to close behind him. "The casualties we sustained today can be our guard."

Stargazer began to rise, intending to book the strange transformer on the first ship off planet, if there had been any, which there weren't.

"No, no, hear me out. None of those killed to day died from energon deficiency, so they're actually still alive, in a strictly medical sense. Their personality centers are still active."

Despite himself, Stargazer was actually becoming interested in the conversation. "What do you mean? The core memories have dumped almost completely. Are you saying you can bring them back online?" he asked, trying to keep his voice calm. The thought of bringing back Streaks and Avatar and the others overshadowed any lingering notions about throwing Jumpstart out.

"Not exactly. Not how you mean, at least. They wouldn't be who they were. How can I explain? They'll be completely different people from their previous lives. With careful steps, we can erase any leftover knowledge of past lives and input information on strategy, martial skills, and the like. There'd be a few problems with a few of them, like Streaks and Piledriver. Part of the main personality center is damaged, but they could still be excellent protectors for this city," Jumpstart explained, his arms motioning quickly as if to draw attention to his point.

Stargazer fumed. "What you suggest borders on insanity! Its completely immoral! You want to overwrite on what was once a living transformer's brain, as if they were spare parts to be tossed around! You would experiment on colleagues, on friends?! I don't believe this."

Jumpstart started at the almost violent reaction, stepping back toward the door in haste. "Yes, they were my friends as well, but its the best for this colony. They'd be almost the same person. The personalities are the same, but they're given a new life! Its better than just letting them die, and better than letting all the others die if we don't find a way to defend ourselves."

The Triptohex commander stood there wondering. Was Jumpstart right? What else could he do? What did they have to loose? "I'll have to think about this. Now please, if you'd leave me in peace."

"Of course," he replied and scooted out into the hall with a sign of relief.

Stargazer looked at his recharge bed with longing. He was exhausted, but he stepped out into the hall anyway, beginning a long trek to the Repair Bay to fix the wound in his head. Actually, it wasn't long at all, but his exhaustion sucked the strength from him and his arms and legs three times as heavy as they should have.

Dragging himself in, he looked around for one of the medics, but the Repair Bay was silent, with the exception of a faint beeping. He turned and found its source, the monitors above the intensive care beds, where Streaks, Avatar and the others lay. He stood watching them for a moment. Stargazer turned as one of the outer doors swished open, revealing two repaireons and a large transformer carrying something. They moved past the Triptohex leader, not saying a word, but did not rush in any of their movements. It was obviously to late for this patient.

"No, we were scanning for leftover Deceps when we found him. There wasn't anything to do for him..." the bulkier robot was saying, setting his burden down on the end bed of the intensive care units.

Stargazer stepped forward and tried not to gasp at what he saw. He turned and left without a word, heading for the Main Lab. Jumpstart was sure to be there and he wanted to tell him to get started on the practical applications of his theory right away.

And near the end of the line of intensive care beds, the two medics hooked their newest patient up to the energon feed, carefully moving scanners over the prone form lying before them, Tracker's eyes staring blankly at the ceiling, half his head missing.

Chapter 4

On a planet not much different from any of its kin, circling a less than exceptional star, called Earth by its organic inhabitants, in the secret underwater base of the Decepticons, Rumble stood watch. He slumped over the controls and blew air through his lips with a rude noise. The cassettecon rubbed at his optics, trying not to be hypnotized by the blinking of the space scanner's incessant bleeping and spinning. It was a post for trouble makers when Megatron didn't have the time or inclination to think up a more fitting discipline, and so, Rumble had been there many times before.

Maybe I shouldn't have put that sugar in Starscream's and Thundercracker's energon? Nah, it was too good a chance to pass up. He grinned to himself, thinking back to the early scene of the two great warrior jets clanking around and falling flat on their can's as the sugar hit their systems.

He was still grinning when the bleeping of the monitors changed, indicating an unidentified object within scanning range. The cassettecon didn't even notice for a minute, and stared blankly at the screen. When it hit him that the interminably boring post might actually be boasting some action, Rumble's hands flew over the board, trying to discern just what the object might be.

Hitting one of the buttons, he connected to the main communications station, the large, dark blue form of Soundwave filling the screen with a questioning look. "There's something on the scanners. It's approaching the outer stratosphere now."

"Something?" the larger Decepticon asked in his reverberating monotone.

Rumble rubbed hid head for a moment, trying to remember exactly how to determine what it might be. Switching a few toggles, the main computers began extrapolating the probabilities. "Well, it looks like a spacecraft."

Soundwave sighed to himself. "Rumble, the humans are always orbiting their planet. We have no time for this."

"No, it's not a fleshling spaceship. It looks like an old Cybertronian design. Wait, hey what's that?" the cassettecon squinted at one of the readings on his board. What is that thing? Hmm.....Whoa! It was the power level indicator. "No way! Hey Soundwave, this ain't no zarkin' fleshling craft! The energy on the thing is nearly off the scale," Rumble said, letting some excitement creep into his words. If he was lucky, he'd see some real action now.

Soundwave shut down the connection, and Rumble sat down at his post again, waiting. And sure enough, ten minutes later Soundwave gave him the signal to join him in the command center.

* * *

Thundercracker strained upwards, into the atmosphere. Ahead of him, Starscream shot up as well, carrying Soundwave in his recorder mode and a number of cassettecons. The jet warrior fumed to himself. That little punk, Rumble! If it hadn't been Starscream, he would have really gotten it. But as it was, Megatron hadn't been terribly inclined to punish Rumble for doing something he felt the second-in-command sorely deserved. And now the twirp is coming on a mission with us!

The darkness of space soon encroached on and then engulfed them. Thundercracker slowed his engines a little, gliding forward in the zero gravity void. Looking around, he didn't see anything at first. But he soon caught a glimpse of their target. A huge, gray, hulking creation, orbiting slowly around the small green world. Definitely an old design, he thought to himself. It was neither Autobot or Decepticon, but he wasn't sure if the Neutrals even had ships. Heck, he wasn't even sure there were any Neutrals around anymore.

Gliding over to it smoothly, Starscream transformed, Soundwave popping out of his cockpit and following suite. Thundercracker moved closer and did the same. Floating along the ship's hull, they made their way to what looked like an airlock. The communications expert peered emotionlessly at an access board placed to one side, trying to decide the best way to by-pass it. Unfortunately, Starscream was not so patient, and he rammed his fist into the board, sending out sparks that died instantly in the airless vacuum. The Decepticon jet pulled on something buried deep in the infrastructure and the doors parted on his self-satisfied sneer.

Great, you can open a door, Thundercracker thought to himself, not stupid enough to actually say it aloud. But from Soundwave's sideways glance, he was sure the telepath had been listening in.

The three entered the airlock and looked cautiously from side to side, seeking enemies. None shown themselves in the darkness. The Decepticons closed the outer doors, and stepping forward, Starscream slammed the 'Open' lever upwards for the door leading to the main ship. And as they too parted, the trio caught there first glimpse of resistance.

Well, resistance wasn't a completely apt term. It was one robot standing in the center of the hallway. As tall as Starscream, colored in stark black and white, he stood stock still, leaning on a pair of swords. Vibrant blue eyes brightened slightly as the robot took up a more defensive stance, saying in a thundering whisper that shouldn't of been possible, "I am Star Blade, guardian of the gates. You shall not pass."

Starscream through back his head and laughed. Raising his arm and taking aim, a laser bolt blasted out and struck to wall behind the spot Star Blade had stood. But he was no longer there. Unfortunately, Starscream knew exactly where the errant robot was seconds later when his face was subject to an assault from Star Blade's flying kick. The Decepticon stumbled back, slamming into a wall.

Thundercracker moved forward even before the other jet hit the wall. He stayed lower and fired, but the other robot moved like lightening, and was suddenly standing right beside him. In a flash, Star Blade rammed the heel of his hand into the Decepticons face, sending him flying backwards as well.

Soundwave wasn't stupid enough to try the same tactics, and as the jets pulled themselves off the ground, he ejected Rumble, Frenzy, Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, and Ravage. They began to circle the black and white robot, the two condors swooping in and out between them.

Ravage moved first, rushing the robot in perfect silence, and clamping his sharp teeth onto Star Blade's arm.

The two jets sneered and began to move past, happy to let the cassettecons deal with him. They wanted the glory of finding out just what was making the power indicator go crazy. But they didn't even get two feet down the hall when a loud rumbling filled their audios. They looked to Rumble, but it wasn't the cassettecon's piledriver arms making the noise, because he was at that second flying toward Soundwave, lifted into the air by a well placed kick from Star Blade, still pulling off the smaller robots and animals left and right.

The noise intensified, and the source was revealed moments later as a streak of blue and gold blasted toward them, followed by a huge metallic monstrosity, closely approximating an Earth tiger, even to it coloring. The tiger roared and charged forward. The streak of color slowed only fractionally, but the Decepticons made out the shape of some kind of plane. It shot forward at an incredible speed, defying the closed in space of the hallway with an almost completely flat surface area, and flew straight past Thundercracker. He didn't understand for a moment, until he looked down at his arm, nearly severed at the elbow from the plane's razor sharp wings. He cried out in agony and clutched the arm.

The tiger had wasted no time in its attack either. At that moment, it had Laserbeak in its teeth and was preceding to crush the avian robot. Soundwave lifted his hefty hand weapon, aiming straight at the tiger, but a flying Frenzy was ejected from the fray around Star Blade, striking Soundwave and knocking his shot wide. But it had caught the creature's attention. It spit the condor cassettecon out and stalked forward, growling low, blue eyes bright. Suddenly Ravage flew from his position gripping the black and white robot's arm and rammed the creature straight on. It barely moved.

Turning its head, the mechanical tiger seemed to grin, showing a row of razor teeth.

Ravage was no fool. He was rightfully proud of his fighting prowess, but he had no illusions that he could fight off the Chevy sized feline robot. But he did not back down.

The blue and gold streak had returned to the fight after performing a tight circle, heading straight for Starscream. The Decepticon fired blindly, trying to back away, aim, fire, and keep an eye on Star Blade who was throwing the last of his cassettecon assailants off and regaining his feet. Soundwave stepped forward to intercept it, firing his weapon point blank as the plane bared down on him. The laser fire hit its wing and glanced off. It didn't even slow it down.

Starscream made his decision. His warrior's pride didn't make it easy, but he sounded a hasty retreat, heading for the airlock. Thundercracker, still trying to hold his arm on, followed with no hesitation. Rumble, Frenzy and the other cassettes transformed, flying into Soundwave's chest compartment, and the dark, blue robot flew out the airlock as well.

Once out in the darkness of space, Starscream, with some reservations, called for reinforcements for what was supposed to be a routine mission.

Back in the starship's hallway, Star Blade was closing the outer doors. The razor-winged plane hovered in air, while right below it the tiger spat vehemently and pawed at its mouth.

"Hey, what's wrong Booster? I thought you liked the taste of Decepticons?" the plane chuckled at the tiger.

"Yuck, got paint in my mouth! Bird taste's bad, ptoo!" came a distinctly female voice in reply from the creature.

"You okay, Star Blade?" the plane asked as the other robot wiped some leaking lubricant off his arm were Ravage had sunk his fangs in. He nodded in confirmation. "Well, if Jumpstart catches you leakin', you'll be in for it. Better get to the Repair Bay."

"You stop bothering Star Blade, Sky Shot. Me give you reason to go to Repair Bay too!"

Booster padded around, swiping playfully at the hovering plane.

"I am in perfect condition! Not a scratch on my paint job!" Sky Shot replied.

"Not when me get through with you! RAR! Come down here and fight like a 'Bot!" she scrabbled down the hall as Sky Shot revved his engines and flew down away, laughing.

"Fight, fight, fight!!" A voice drifted down the corridor, accompanied the sound of crashing footfalls, towards the airlock as Star Blade made his way out of the branch hall and into the main way. A bright green robot headed into view, his face falling when no enemies appeared. "Hey! Where'd they go? Ah man, I always miss the good stuff," and he turned and tromped back down the main way, towards the bridge.

The black and white robot stood silently for a moment longer, shaking his head at such behavior. But after all the years, decades, centuries, millennium...he'd gotten used to it. Turning on his heel, he moved in the direction of Repair Bay, because Sky Shot had been very correct in his assessment of Jumpstart's probable reaction.

Chapter 5

The sun burned in the clear, cloudless skies above the highway, shining down on a passing caravan of travelers making their way into the deep Oregon wilderness. Huge wheel ground into hot pavement and the roar of their passing sent the local wildlife scattering from their sunning spots by the road. In the lead, a huge red semi led the way.

"I still don't see anything. Are you sure Teletran doesn't have a bug or something?" Huffer whined over the intersystem radio.

"No, Teletran does not have a 'bug'," Prowl stated, moving up beside him. "We are nearing the probable point of descent. Postulated ETA has the unidentified landing in approximately 12.6 minutes."

"Hey, it ain't unidentified. Looks like some of the boys from Cybertron are out on a road trip," Jazz replied, increasing speed to pass the patrol car.

As the Porsche approached the lead, the semi said, more to himself than anyone, "Unfortunately, it hasn't responded to our attempts to contact it. It might be Decepticons." A moment later, Prime rolled to a stop, the others following suite. In an incredible display of evolutionary technology, the caravan transformed, one by one, into the 15 foot giant robots that called themselves the Autobots.

"In that old clunker. I haven't seen a ship like that for over five million years. If it is the 'Cons, they're harder pressed for spacecraft than we ever imagined," Jazz chuckled, following Prime as they all made their way through a half recognizable path far to narrow for their vehicle forms.

The planet spun like a green jewel as the Iron Wing made its way into the atmosphere. The robot at the starship's controls guided it smoothly out of millennium upon millennium of practice. But, as it had been each of those thousands of years, his enjoyment of the moment was spoiled by his copilot.

"I don't know Wavehopper. Are you sure this is the right one? Maybe we took a wrong turn at Alpha Centauri. Or maybe it was Gamma Sigma, instead of Gamma Orandi that we should have passed." The transformer next to him leaned back in his seat, weaving his fingers behind his head and staring through his visor out at the lovely world they approached.

Wavehopper shook his head and chuffed out a frustrated puff of air. "I am perfectly capable of remembering the directions. This is the planet we're looking for." With a few taps on the controls, the Iron Wing moved down farther into the planet's skies, slowly coasting its way through the clouds.

With a rush of inertia, the ship suddenly wheeled to starboard, as pilot and copilot-pilot clung to there seats in attempts not to be thrown across the room. "Shock! Are you sure you know how to fly this thing?" the green robot asked, fingers flying over the controls.

Wavehopper tried to level off their now spiraling flight downward, but the engines did not respond. "Shut up! I'm a perfect pilot. Maybe those intruders left something on the hull. Didn't you go and check?"

"No. Uh-oh..."

"What do you mean 'uh-oh'?" he turned to face the other Transformer.

A look of surprise colored his face, followed by a wide grin. "Ha, those intruders didn't leave anything. They're back, and they brought their friends. Look!" Flicking a switch, the screen before them lit up with a view of the outside. Sensors swiveled and revealed the problem with their flight pattern. A tank had somehow landed on their starboard wing and was blasting the hell out of it. In the background, a black jet like the ones Wavehopper had spotted after them in orbit was busily trying to borough a hole through the outside of the ship, while behind him a great number were swooping in toward the them.

"Party time!" the copilot shouted, and toggling a switch, he repeated over the intraship radio, "Party time, guys! We've got some pest that need exterminating. Meet ya out on the hull. Be there or be square." He nearly flew out of his chair, turning and rushing for the door, carefully trying not to slip on the still tilted floor.

"Where on Primus' silver Cybertron do you think you're going?! Get back here, Turfkicker. Turfkicker!" Wavehopper shouted, still struggling to right the ship.

But the green robot was already gone.

A rumbling in the ship alerted the Decepticons that something was wrong. Seconds later, a hatch opened not ten meters from Blitzwing, distracting him from his attack on the engines and suddenly he was surrounded. To his left, the black and white robot Starscream had reported, along with the tiger and to his right, a green robot and the razor-winged, flat jet. Without picking a particular target, the triplechanger fired. All four of them scattered, the tiger keeping low and running straight toward him. Blitzwing transformed to robot mode just in time to dodge its huge black claws. Turning, he found himself facing the barrel of two guns held by the grinning green robot.

"Bang, you're dead!" he said, smiling.

"Wrong!" shouted Dirge, the Decepticon jet shouted, barreling into him, sending him flying over the ship's edge, and plummeting toward the Earth the ship was growing closer to with every second.

"Hey, I don't need your help!" Blitzwing shouted, grasping his electro-sword and turning to attack.

"Hehehe, oh yes you do, buddy!" came a voice from behind him. Before he could turn again, a blast of laser fire hit him in the back, sending the Decepticon to his knees. Looking up, the green robot had returned from his fall, and has hovering over his fallen victim. Actually hovering!

"You damn Autobot! You can't fly," Dirge shouted, circling for another shot at the mysterious robot. As he passed close, the flat blue and gold jet streaked past him, and using its wings as weapons, sliced into the Decepticon's nose cone. He screamed in pain, swooping away.

"RAR, he have real problem facing reality," yelled the tiger creature, flying toward the downed Blitzwing. Suddenly, the black form of Skywarp was upon her, firing and disappearing, then reappearing and firing again. "Stand still for so Booster can kill you!" shouted the tiger, rotating left and right, trying to guess where the Decepticon would pop up next.

"Aw, and you were just remembering how pronouns worked, Booster," the green robot laughed.

Skywarp appeared again, but didn't get off a round. From behind, the black and white robot sunk one of his swords deep into the jet's shoulder. The other almost sliced out the Decepticons knee before he was able to disappear again. Star Blade stood at the ready, should he return again.

The attacking Decepticons scattered suddenly, as the Earth rose up to meet the ship. Crashing through a thickly forested area, and then banking upwards again at a crazy angle, Booster grasped onto the hull with her claws for dear life as the other three took to the air. Barely managing to dodge flyin' debris, Sky Shot called in over the radio, "Fall-Out, are you taking an energon break or what? Aren't you supposed to be fixing that engine?"

A young voice filtered over to him in reply, "We're working on it, we're working on it," and broke the connection.

The sky was filled with robots and the ship they're detected was infinitely visible by the time the Autobots made their way to a dusty stretch of cleared land surrounded by mountainous terrain, where they could move in more than a single file line. Looking up, Prime could pick out the Decepticons easily, but someone else as well. The great craft was making shaky spirals back up into the sky, and off one wing flew two he'd never seen before and a strange jet. From their defensive stance, he guesses they weren't Decepticons, but Autobots couldn't fly, so what were these robots doing hovering around in midair?

But he had very little time to give the question any more thought. Not a moment after they'd revealed themselves, the Decepticons saw them, most of them leaving their positions around the starship to swoop down at what they perceived as an easier target. Raising their weapons, the Autobots tried to find cover in their rocky surroundings or sank back into the woods a few meters.

"Come back here and fight!" shouted the bright geen robot wheeling down from his position next to the shaky ship. A blast of fire from his feet propelled him forward, landing him in a perfect position to grab the wing of a close passing Starscream. "This is for leaving before I could beat you up before!" he laughed, firing his thrusters again and sending the jet spinning away.

"What the....Who the shock are these guys?! That moron's insane!" shouted Blaster, firing upwards from behind cover of a large boulder.

But seconds later something else flew from inside the ship. A gray craft, boxy with large silver wings jutting out from its sides, moved slowly away from the greater ship, then shot away at top speed. Swooping down low, the Autobots could see a crazy midget robot stood in a surfing pose atop the speeding air wing, raising his arms up and pointing the two huge weapons attached to them at the onrushing Decepticons. "Breaker breaks Decepticons!" he shouted, cackling as a huge funnel of glowing energy shot from both gun barrels, hitting the already scattering enemies. The Decepticons dropped to the ground like flies without their wings, the thundering sound of their landings shaking the hills for miles.

"Aw, you're always ruining our fun, Breaker!" shouted the hovering flat jet.

Below, the fallen robots were not having fun at all. Scraping themselves off the ground, Starscream was again giving the retreat order. And no one, not even the most pigheaded or staunch warrior, disagreed.

Chapter 6

The Iron Wing continued its whirling descent, and Booster still clung to the starboard wing for all she was worth. With the fight drawn away from her for a time, she became more lucid, and realized her predicament. Switching to the intership frequency, she shouted over the noise of the air rushing all around her. "Wavehopper, can't you set this buggy down? Anytime soon is real good, I'm gettin' dizzy out here."

"The engine's still knocked out, I'm gonna have to land it in that lake, about a mile over," the voice replied over her radio.

She started and her mouth dropped in terror. "Don't even think about, you out-dated rustbucket!!! I'll personally rip out your energon pump and roast it over an open plasma fire!! Land this thing now!"

"Jeez, no need to get personal about it. Just get your can in here, then we can land in the water and roll this thing out," Wavehopper told her, thoroughly used to her bad-temper and flying insults.

"I'm not lettin' one claw out of this hull, so forg....." she was cut off as a nasty jet stream caught the ship, causing it to buck and reel beneath her. Seconds later, the metal of the hull gave way beneath her paws and she wheeled out into the sky. She was plummeting, and her mind began to freeze up. Booster had fallen before. No she didn't. What had happened? Cold, water, death. Falling, falling, looking down she saw the lake beneath her. Water, Death. I remember this, No I don't, It happened, No it didn't, Why don't I transform, I can't, I can fly if I transform, No I can't. The contradictions in her head stopped her from doing anything but watching as the lake's shining surface rushed up at her.

Suddenly, she clanged to a halt, crashing into a metal surface. Still in her tiger form, she dug her claws deeply into the grayish surface, eliciting a screech from its owner, the Dinobot Swoop.

"No, me Swoop say stop that. Me save you, stop hurt Swoop. Ouch, rraarrrr!"

But she could not let go. She closed down her optics, not looking down as they flew away from the lake's surface.

Prime stood near the edge of the wooded area as his warriors encircled him, everyone watching raptly as the giant ship crashed forward, into the lake. Moments after it initially hit the water, the three operational hover engines blasted the ship upwards shakily, and moving it backwards. Finally, it settled onto the shoreline.

From the sky, the flat jet, the green robot, the black and white robot, and the trigger-happy surfer midget on the air wing all glided down toward the staring troupe of Autobots. Setting down a few meters away, the flatjet glided forward as the green robot ran up to Prime.

"See? I told Wavehopper this was the right planet. Didn't I say it?" the green robot asked the blue and gold hovering flyer.

"I don't believe I remember that proclamation. But I'm glad we found you guys here. I was beginning to wonder who'd given the forest animals energy weapons. Oh well," it replied, sighing.

A slight rumbling from the black and white robot behind them caught their attention, and both quickly decided to shut their mouths.

"Excuse me here."

The robot turned his head, while the flatjet merely kept hovering, as Sideswipe interrupted them. "Yes, yes?" the flatjet asked.

"If you wouldn't mind," the red Autobot asked with measured politeness, "Could you tell us..... Just who are you lunatics!?!" he finished with an exasperated sputter. Prime, who had been trying, without much success, to keep a straight face during the entire conversation, now broke into a smirk. He'd never been so happy for his faceplate.

"Oh yea. Allow me to introduce ourselves," the green robot said with an unnecessary flourish of limbs. "We're the Triptobots. I'm Turfkicker, and he's Sky Shot," pointing to the flatjet. Motioning to the black and white behind them, "That's Star Blade, and he's our leader."

"Greetings," Optimus said, trying for a diplomatic tone while struggling to actually take the other robots seriously. He stepped forward and extended a hand to Star Blade. "I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots."

Star Blade simply cocked his head and stood stock still. In the background, Turfkicker held his head and a soft groan was emitted from Sky Shot. The other Autobots shuffled around. The moment of tension was broken seconds later, as the air wing that had been floating unobtrusively behind Star Blade suddenly transformed to robot mode and stepped forward. He was between large and medium, colored in varying shades of silver and gray, and the trigger-happy little robot that had been standing on him was now snoozing on the robot's shoulder. "Please excuse him, Optimus Prime. Unless there's been a coupe, I believe Turfkicker meant me." Stepping forward, the silver robot grasped the Autobot leaders wrist and shook.

From behind, Jazz and the other Autobots watched the exchange and most were amazed. After seeing the effectiveness of these strange Transformers fighting, they couldn't believe that this soft-spoken, sad-eyed robot could actually be there leader. Prime, on the other hand, had no doubts.

"Greetings, Optimus Prime. My name is Turbo, leader of the Triptobots. We've come to join the Autobots."

"Who this?" Slag asked as Booster tumbled from Swoop's back, her air intakes operating at warp speed as she gasped for breath. Lying on the ground, still in tiger mode, Booster looked up and was startled at the huge triceratops's head set above her.

Swoop transformed to robot mode and shrugged his shoulders. "Me not know."

She backed away, trying to get enough room to transform because she had an awful feeling she'd get stepped on if she didn't. But she struck something, and looking up, the brontosaur head of Sludge came down and blinked at her.

Snarl, who stood beside Slag, looked up to Swoop and asked suspiciously, "How you know he not Decepticon? Where you find?"

Booster was getting fed up at not being spoken to, something her comrade Triptobots had learned early on not to do. She growled and Sludge gave her a confused look, but the other Dinos paid her no heed and continued their monosyllabic conversation.

"Can't be Decepticon. Was falling out of sky. Deceps can fly."

"You supposed to find Autobots. The boss went out to find you when you not come back," Slag said.

"What we do with him?" Sludge asked, looking down at Booster.

The longer it went on, the more excited and angry she got, and as before in the battle, her grasp on the finer concepts of language was loosened. Taking the Dinobots by surprise, Booster took the opportunity to transform to her robot mode. Standing, she stood almost three feet shorter than Swoop, but still managed to keep some of the edge in her voice that showed no fear. "First, me is not a Decepticon and me is not a he. Me is Booster."

Thunderstruck, the Dinos just stared for a moment, but Sludge soon recovered wonderfully by stating the completely obvious, "He's a girlbot."

She stepped forward slowly, not sure she wanted to make any sudden moves around the towering behemoths, until she stood before Swoop. "Me want to thank you. You save me." Trying to look somewhat amiable, she stuck out her hand. The Dinobot didn't seem to know what she wanted, and stood and scratched his head for an interminable amount of time before finally grasping her wrist with a lop-sided grin. Sludge and Snarl snickered in the background.

The sound of crashing trees sent Booster into a defensive stance, ready to transform into her tiger mode at the first sign of trouble. But looking around, she saw the other Dinobots weren't at all concerned.

"Grimlock back," Swoop explained to her, pointing toward the noise just as a huge tyrannosaurus robot made himself seen through a line of pine trees.

"Why you just stand around?" were the first words out of the Dinobot commander's mouth. Looking down on the female robot as he neared the group, Grimlock leaned down and asked, "What this?"

"Me is Booster. Is Triptobot," she answered, still trying put on a decent show of fearlessness.

The tyrannosaurus eyed her suspiciously. "Why you mocking Dinobots?" asked Grimlock. A sore point with the Dinobot commander was his groups slight problem with the local language and he didn't like this strange robot, even if she was a girl, making fun of them by emulation.

Booster had noticed this problem in the others, and had been trying to calm herself enough to speak normally, but Grimlock wasn't making it easy by standing over her. Calmly, she said, "Me not mean to offend you, Grimlock. Me have problem with speech program, will clear up with time."

Still suspicious, the Dinobot decided she was probably telling the truth. Turning to the assembled Dinobots, he waved them forward. "Me found Autobots. Let's go."

Transforming to pteranodon mode, Swoop took off over the trees as the others lumbered after Grimlock. Deciding the Triptobots were probably with the Autobots as well, Booster transformed to tiger mode, easily keeping pace with the Dinos.

Chapter 7

Stomping out of the control room of the Iron Wing, making his way to the Repair Bay, Wavehopper fumed. Today must be their 'Piss off the pilot' day, he thought to himself. First my copilot jumps ship, then even Turbo leaves, and then Booster won't get her can off my ship. What else can happen today? But he really didn't want to think of anything in fear that the powers that be might see fit to make it a reality. Tromping down the main way, he stuck his head into the domain of the resident medic.

"Jumpstart, all ashore that's goin' ashore. Turbo's callin'. I guess we finally got it right."

The white and gray Transformer was leaning over his computer terminal. He didn't even move as Wavehopper approached. "Jumpstart?"

Leaning closer, the pilot deduced the medic was snoozing soundly, probably from an energon shortage he suffered from regularly when he pushed himself. Walking over to a cabinet set in the wall, Wavehopper pulled out two cubes that glowed an incredible shade of blue-green, unlike any energon cube seen by Autobot or Decepticon. But it was the only kind the Triptobots knew of. Setting one in front of the dozing doctor, Wavehopper left to find their would-be mechanic Fall-Out. Walking out the door, he already heard Jumpstart stirring, awakened by the smell of fresh energy. By the time he made it to the damaged starboard engine, he'd already finished off the other one.

Leaning down into the bot-hole set in the floor, he called out, "Fall-Out. Fall-Out, are you down there?"

"We're working on it, we're working on it," came the reply, and nothing else.

"Fall-Out, we've landed already."

Silence, then the sound of metal on metal as one robot made his way up the ladder, poking his small gray and orange head out the hole. "Really? Oh well, we guess this can wait till later," he decided, shaking his head, pulling himself out off the ladder and up to the main way, closing the bot-hole cover behind him.

"Sure. Let's go pick up Jumpstart and then scrape Booster off the hull. I bet she's still out there....."

Back at the Autobot's homebase, their own starship, the Ark, lay buried as it had for 4 million Earth years, in the side of Oregon's Mt. Saint Hillary. Having finally repaired the engine on their own Iron Wing, and rounded up the rest of their team, the Triptobots had flown their bulky craft to the mountain. They now began their petition to join the ranks of the Autobots. In the command room, the Autobot commander faced Turbo and his group, still endeavoring to take seriously this transformer with a snoozing robot, introduced as Breaker, lying on his shoulder.

"Do you know why the Decepticons attacked your ship?" Prime asked the Triptobot leader. Behind him, the orange and black-striped robot that had made her appearance with the Dinobots was busy strangling the life out of the blue and gray pilot Transformer. Sky Shot and Turfkicker snickered at the brawl, while Star Blade and the two who'd accompanied the pilot tried to pull them apart.

Barely turning, never loosing his half apologizing smile, Turbo said calmly, "Enough." All action stopped simultaneously and the Triptobots came to quasi-attention.

But Turfkicker couldn't help himself, and out of the side of his mouth, answered Prime's question with a "Maybe they heard the snack bar was open." A kick in the shin from Booster silenced him.

"In essence perhaps, Turfkicker. Optimus Prime, I believe they may have detected our ship's mass energy readings. I have no doubt they proved irresistible." But before he could explain further, a hollow clanging from his shoulder rider announced the midget robot's wakefulness. Turbo began talking again, pressing a small button on his wrist, a small, bright blue-green cube popped out, and still unperturbed, handed it to Breaker. Optimus stared in amazement as the little robot devoured it, wondering what it could be. To quench his curiosity, he asked the Triptobot leader.

Turbo looked confused for a second, as if he didn't understand. He answered, "This? It is just energon. Breaker gets a little hungry after fights with the 'core funnels'." The Autobot asked for one and it was supplied. He held onto it during the conversation, as Turbo explained their reasons for joining the Autobots, and where they had come from in the first place. Prime was unfamiliar with the name Triptohex, but Stargazer rung a bell. He remembered the day of the Second, infinitely smaller, Exodus quite well.

"What happened to Stargazer and the others at Triptohex?" Optimus asked. He would have to limit his questions, for most of the other Triptobots were becoming quite restless. From behind Turbo came the synthesized sounds of a battle and huge crash and explosion. The Triptobot leader barely turned, and Turfkicker's and Sky Shot's little recreation stopped short.

"The Triptobots were led away from the city by a false attack. The Decepticons weren't looking to pillage the energon reserves this time. They had a single goal. We'd beaten quite a few of their raid parties, and they didn't have the courage to fight us. So they killed everyone in Triptohex and destroyed everything that could have been a ship. If it weren't for the old Iron Wing being stored beneath the Main Residence, we would have been effectively stranded. It would have been the end of the Decepticons problems with us." Turbo recalled it with a trace of sadness, or it might have been a trick of the light, but he had an eternally downtrodden look.

Prime shook his head in silent sympathy for the loss of so many. He said aloud, "Speak with Jazz, he should already have your private quarters assigned. Welcome to the Autobots my friends." The silence afterwards was deafening.

"Yahoo!!!!" Turfkicker yelled, kicking mountains of dirt up in clouds that swirled all around him. It'd been hundreds of Earth years since he'd been on a planet, hundreds of years since he'd needed to use his vehicle mode, but now he was having fun with it. The green jeep behind him that had introduced himself as Hound, on the other hand, was not enjoying his desert romp. He couldn't when the loud, brash three-wheeled dune car was spraying grit and sand at him from every direction.

The Triptobot's huge back tires took up most of his size, and they rolled over anything and everything. He moved up the rocky desert mountains like they were nothing, transforming in mid-motion when he reached a vertical cliff, and in seconds was up and rolling again. Hound was literally left in the dust.

"Hey Hound, ain't you comin'? The view's great from up here! Hey, what's that?" Looking out on the horizon, Turfkicker shielded his optics from the sun and pointed. Hound slowed in his halting move up the cliffs winding trails to follow the Triptobot's gaze.

"That's one of the human's cities, Turfkicker," he answered, starting upwards again.

Turfkicker stood up and leaned over the edge of the mountain face for an even closer look. "Nah! That can't be a city. Look how small that is. Now I've seen lots of organic's cities. They had big towers, glass and steel, and like that....." The Triptobot went on and on about the different cities, not seeming to notice or care that Hound wasn't particularly listening. The Autobot wondered to himself why he'd been assigned the job of watching out for this renegade. He'd just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Without someone to keep an optic on them, there was no telling what the unpredictable Transformers might do.

"Primus, but this place is pretty. I haven't had shore leave in a long time. It's great to be out and about. This planet looks a lot like the colony world," Turfkicker sighed to himself. Hound transformed and strolled up behind him. At least the robot wasn't all bad. Unlike most of the other Autobots, he did complain about how messy the organic world was or how much he missed Cybertron. And that brought up another question.

"Turfkicker, I was wondering.."

The green Triptobot pulled his visored optics away from the landscape to face the green Autobot. "Hmm?"

"Why didn't you just return to Cybertron after the colony was destroyed? I mean, it was probably a lot closer to Triptohex."

Turfkicker's face split in a smile, and he almost toppled over laughing. Hound's questioning gaze caught him, and the robot tried to straighten up, only to double over a second time.

"Was it something I said?" Only gasping giggles followed.

Finally, air circulators whirring to catch up, giving him the robotic version of the hiccups, "No....Its just a....a really ba....bad, old joke...and its too....ooo funny! But I pro....promised I wouldn't say....anything. Jumpstart'd.....have..ave my head!" He finally got a hold of himself. "Sorry."

"Okay. I think we'd better head back to the Ark, if you don't mind."

"Sure, sure. Hey! Race ya there!" The green Triptobot didn't wait for an answer, leaping off the cliff down into the yawning chasm below, using his leg engines to boost himself up slightly, then transforming in mid-motion again to bounce down the rocky trail at such speed it should have flipped him end over end, but he kept on going, oblivious to the laws of gravity.

Hound transformed back to jeep mode, and ambled away after him, not interested in blowing out a tire or killing his shocks at the moment.

"Oh yea, you flyin' pancake!! You can't even transform! Why don't you....."

"At least I'm not a refrigerator with wings, you snot-nosed rookie!! You couldn't fly if I shoved a heat missile up your exhaust pipe!"

The confrontation between Slingshot and the new Triptobot Sky Shot had long since ceased to amuse the other Aerialbots. But Slingshot wasn't giving up. He stood nose to nose with the jet hovering before him as they both traded insults and hurled choice phrases. The dispute had started over flying space, and if asked, each would have blamed the other for the trouble. As it was, Fireflight and Air Raid stood watching their wingmate in confusion, Skydive already having left.

"I'll bet you five energon chits I'll beat your ailerons off!"

"A race? Great, fine by me! You'll be spittin' my dust for weeks, ha!"

"Uh," Fireflight started, "Do you think that's such a great idea, Slingshot?"

Slingshot stomped over to his team mate and huffed indignantly, "What? Think I can't do it? Fine, I'll show you two, too. I can outrace anybot at low altitude and don't you forget it." Pointing to the far off rolling mountains, the Aerialbot said, "Okay, there and back. Got it? Good." Transforming, he took up position right next to Sky Shot.
In an ingratiating tone that was completely false, the Triptobot called for the go signal.

Shaking his head, Air Raid said "Alright. On your marks, get set, go!"

Both the aircraft were of in a shot, but Slingshot never had a chance. While he was right about his flying abilities at low altitude, his own choice of the mountain terrain stole any chance of winning. Sky Shot, built almost completely flat, slipped through crevices in the rocky terrain that sent Slingshot into upward spins and neck-break dives to keep up. On the turn back to the finish, the Aerialbot was lengths behind.

At the finish, the two Aerialbots moaned, thinking about how much petty posturing Slingshot would have to do to make up for this defeat. Behind them, Hound and Turfkicker rolled up, attracted by the jet noise. "What's going on?" the Autobot asked, transforming to humanoid mode, the Triptobot following suite.

"Slingshot's on an ego trip, and the newbie is sending him packing," Air Raid replied, shaking his head.

Sky Shot returned to the whopping cries of triumph from his team mate Turfkicker. Slacking behind, too aware of his defeat, Slingshot landed and transformed, looking incensed.

"Hey, you're a hell of a lot faster than you look!" Sky Shot told him, adding in a bit of labored air circulation that was forced, but at least got the point across.

"Alright, you're more maneuverable. But we still don't know who's fastest," the defeated Aerialbot put on a show of being civil, even sticking out his hand to the hovering flatjet.

Sky Shot continued to hover and if it had been possible, Hound was sure the jet looked pained. Turfkicker smiled and said with joviality, "Come on, Sky Shot. Turbo said play nice with the natives. Shake hands and make up."

The hovering Triptobot snarled at the other, but finally transformed. Four wings dislodged themselves from the main body, forming his limbs and a head popped on to the forming shoulders and neck, obviously shunted into subspace along with his weapons, for his flat body couldn't have hidden it. Standing almost as tall as Slingshot, Sky Shot was quite impressive in humanoid form. He smiled, but made no move forward.

Tiring of the civil displays, Slingshot moved forward and clasped wrists with his opponent for a moment. He gave a little push when he let go, accidentally to be sure, but even so, all hell broke loose.

The tiny shove set Sky Shot tilting backwards, balanced awkwardly on too small, too narrow feet, and considerably top-heavy. With wheeling arms, the Triptobot hit the ground with a thud. He still pitched back and forth, trying to right himself, but his huge triangular legs and arms were too awkward and ungainly to lift him, and he lay flat, unable to get up. Though it wasn't particularly funny to the two Triptobots, nor even to Hound, the Aerialbots found it too hilarious to keep hold of themselves, and burst out in raucous laughter.

On the ground, Sky Shot's eyes lit blazing blue, and transforming back to his much preferred flatjet mode, he shot upwards again, circling the Aerialbot group. Even in this mode, he shook with rage, sharpening the arch of his circle to move closer with each rotation.

"Sky Shot, don't even think about it!" warned Turfkicker, and with a rumble of discontent, Sky Shot blazed a trail into the Earth's wild blue yonder.

Chapter 8

In the recesses of the Ark, Jumpstart, the Triptobots answer to a country doctor, and Fall-Out, their premiere mechanic, ambled about, trying to get a feel of the place. They stopped every moment or so as the mechanic veered off course to look at another marvel of the Ark, having had to hold the Iron Wing together with so much chewing gum and shoe string for so long that anything amazed him.

But Jumpstart had something particular in mind to look for. He'd been leading their little tour group closer to what he believed was the science lab's section of the ship, though he couldn't be sure. Every few doors or so, the doctor popped his head in and then restrained Fall-Out from running in to examine any of the experiments in progress. Finally, he found what he was looking for.

Stepping into a personally fitted lab, strewn with all manner of machinery, spare parts, half built inventions, and the like, Jumpstart moved toward the room's occupant, while out in the hallway, Fall-Out stumbled on, unaware of the other Triptobot's absence. The Autobot was medium height and build, still mainly black and white, and still had those pair of blinking panels on the sides of his head. Wheeljack didn't even notice Jumpstart's presence till he spoke.

"I'd thought you would have gotten rid of those by now, you know. Well, I guess they probably are your best feature, distracts from the rest of your face, or lack there of."

Wheeljack turned and started. He simply stared in disbelief for a moment. "I thought you were dead," was all he could come up with.

"The reports of my death were seriously exaggerated, while I cannot say the same for others." Stepping forward, the two old friends shook wrists. "Its been a long time, Wheels."

"A very long time. A lot of things have changed."

"Oh I don't know. You were right about the Autobots. 'Wheeljack is always right' still seems to be a constant of the universe." The Autobot scientist shook his head and grinned under his face plates. He hadn't heard that phrase. A more familiar one was 'Stand back, it's gonna explode' from Prime's other troops. "Nice place you got here," Jumpstart went on, making polite chit-chat conversation all scientist were far too familiar with.

"I keep busy. I heard the reports about your little companions, but I didn't hear that you were here too. Primus, ouch!" Wheeljack pulled his hand away from one of his latest, not so greatest inventions. He wasn't exactly sure what it was going to be yet, but he'd just about attached his arm to it with his welding torch.

"Well, I'm afraid I'm a little less spectacular in my abilities. Shouldn't you disconnect the power to that?"

"No, I'm trying to figure out if what I'm doing is working. It keeps shorting out, just tryin' to find the loose connection. I've got a question for you now. Who are those guys?"

"An experiment in progress."

"Excuse me?"

"There's no excuse for you, I'm afraid," Jumpstart replied with his own brand of bad humor, then explained. "Well, without Vector Sigma, its impossible to create new Transformer life, correct?"

"I've heard something like that," Wheeljack rolled his optics at the bad joke, and semi-patronizing tone.

"Yes, well, technically the 10 Transformers who died in the first attack weren't 'dead'. I mean, they pretty much still functioned, but the primary and back-up core memories were fried beyond any hope of repair. We had all the materials necessary to build new bodies, and all we had to do was download what was left of the cerbro circuits over. For some of them, it was a little harder than others...."

"What do you mean? You just wrote over the old memories? We've got a bunch of the walking dead filing through the Ark?" Wheeljack asked with a mixture of amazment, disgust, and sarcasm.

"Well, technically, but I wouldn't have put it just that w......," Jumpstart was interrupted by shouts from the hallway outside. Hollow, clanging steps that were far softer than any normal steps should be came from the corridor, drifting into the lab, followed by their owner, the tiny Triptobot Breaker.

"Turbo?! Turbo?! Get back here! Where'd you go?!" the little robot was shouting. He turned into Wheeljack's lab, optics blinking in surprise. "Hey Jumpstart! Have you seen Turbo anywhere?!" Breaker spoke in such a way that every sentence had to have an exclamation point, no matter how calmly it was delivered.

"He couldn't have gotten far, you know that. Haven't you tried to call him?"

"What do you think I've been doing for the last hour!" He turned and started out the door. "Turbo! Where are you going without me?!"

"Breaker, no, Breaker, come here."

The little robot turned, tapping his foot in impatience. "What?!"

"You haven't tried a comlink have you? You can't go around this entire planet calling his name, its not like the Iron Wing. Just send out a signal, and he'll answer. He can't be more than a mile away at most, you know that."

"Okay! I couldn't find him anywhere! I just wanted to watch the cartoons in the Lounge, then he walked out! I didn't even see him leave! He can't go anywhere without me, any....." Breaker's voice faded as he walked out of the lab and down the corridor.

"A little over protective, isn't he?" Wheeljack commented, diverting his attention back to his invention, making sure to keep an optic on the welder.

"Oh, we all are a little. We've got a right to be. Especially Breaker, considering what could happen if Turbo gets too far..." His reply faded.

"Well, your Turbo can't be much of a leader if you're all that worried he can get hurt that easily just wandering around."

An almost nasty glare came from Jumpstart. "That's not something you want to repeat around the others if you want to remain able-bodied, I can assure you. No, Turbo has no trouble taking care of himself. But he and Breaker are probably my most problematic little experiment."

Wheeljack had given up on the invention, especially after that barely concealed threat. He crossed his arms and leaned back in his workchair, watching the other scientist, listening wraptly to his explaination. "Really?"

"Yes. There was a big problem with Tracker, Turbo's first personality. In the Triptohex battle, his cerebro circuits were damaged. None of the real functioning, just the relays. But we didn't have any specialists who could reconstruct them, so we had to make a few compromises."

"Compromises?"

"Uh-huh. Micro, the former Breaker, was already being reconfigured into a sort of 'smart gun'. So, the other specialists and I thought it would be perfect to link the two. Turbo shares Breakers relays over a subspace linkup, so they both relay messages back and forth over the same circuits. That way they're perfectly suited to work together. But the farther the distance, the harder the subspace signals are to send and receive." Wheeljack was fascinated and a little sick at the same time. He wouldn't want to share his mind with anyone, but to make a Transformer and his weapon that efficient seemed an impossible experiment.

"We've had a few problems over the years," Jumpstart went on. "Once Breaker was kidnapped by some ruffians looking for spare parts for their spacecraft. We had a pit of a time getting him back, especially without Turbo's help..."

"You really look up to him as a leader, that little guy?"

His nasty glare almost returned, but he simply shook his head in all earnesty. Moving closer to the workbench, Jumpstart began examining Wheeljack's machination of parts and wires, and the Triptobot and Autobot got to work figuring out just what it might be.

The sun beat down on Booster from above and the breeze brought the scents of the forest trees to her olfactory sensors, but she paid no heed. Below her lay the Dinobot Sludge, his wide back supplying her a perfect resting spot off the ground and a better vantage point. Not that there was anything to see. Farther to the left, Snarl was soaking in solar energy through the stegasaurus spikes on his back, and Swoop, in robot mode, was leaning against a thick tree trunk watching a portable TV with an powerbooster Wheeljack had installed. Sludge had moved his long neck to a better vantage point in which to see the television. Slag and Grimlock, thoroughly engrossed in an argument of some kind or another had since stomped off in notably bad moods.

Nothing around her stirred her attention. She was almost content in the relative silence and the company of the simple Dinobots. Almost, she reflected. That was one thing. All the Triptobots had things they needed to do to be happy. For Turfkicker and Sky Shot, this planet was perfect. The green Triptobot would be forever content in the swirling deserts and rocky mountains. Sky Shot would never leave the wide open skies if he didn't need too. With the newer technology of the Ark, Fall-Out would never worry about boredom and Star Blade could always find the solitude he sought if he looked hard enough. And in the relative peace of Earth, Turbo and Wavehopper would be happy, and if Turbo was happy, Breaker was invariably happy. Even Jumpstart had his old friend Wheeljack to talk to. But she could not be content. Only one thing gave Booster any enjoyment. She wanted to fight. She wanted to plan a strike and carry it out and see her victory. She wanted an enemy to shred with her claws, an oponent to fight till only one of the stood in the end. But it wasn't going to happen, and it took all her strength to curb her instincts, her desire. She lapsed into rest mode, still lying on the preoccupied Sludge's back, and she remembered long ago, in old dreams..................

The trenches of Cybertron are covered in the roiling smoke of constant gunfire. Concussion grenades pass overhead as she looks up, blasting a flying warrior to the ground. He lands far out in the no man's land, and is quickly dispatched by the enemy. She is angry. She rages, firing her weapon continuous bursts of hot red balls of flame and streaks of white lightning out over the enemy trenches, forcing opposing warriors to duck for cover. Those who are to slow fall back, their optics boiling in their sockets and their helmet melting around them.

"Commander, commander come in. This is Force 1 leader. We're encountering extreme resistance in here. We need back up n..*crack, crack* " Screams rise in pitch over her intrasystem communicator.

"Force 2, move in. We have to take that power plant now!" she orders. Force 2 leader walks up and salutes, a smile in his optic, strange in the heat of the battle. She smiles herself and shakes her head. "Be careful."

"Always, Commander," he replies. He runs off, six other warriors on his heels.

"Report," comes the familiar, cold voice over her intracom.

"We're having problems with the first strike. Sending in the second strike now. Our enemies will not keep this target. I've giving them five minutes, then I'm going in myself with the rest of the troops."

"Negative. This is against the Supreme Commander's orders."

"Frag off. I'm second-in-command, I'm here, I'm giving the orders."

"This will not be permitted. I am relaying plans to the Supreme Commander now. His reply will be relayed to you."

She closes the connection in disgust. "Primus damn him to the smelting pits, the stodgy old rustbucket cyclops."

"He is correct. It is against orders," her companion replies. She looks over to him, shaking her head.

"Not you too. I'm not going to sit here on my can and wait for our warriors to be picked off in there. I'll go in there alone if I have to."

"It is merely a statement of fact. I did not say I agreed with it," came the melodiously monotone reply, and it brought a smile to her grease stained face.

"Our Supreme Commander's got other problems with his own attack. That zarking subcommander better start recognizing my authority or he'll go the way of his predecessors," she swears to herself. "Force 2, report."

A crackle of static is the only reply. "Why doesn't he report in!" she almost screams. Her companion shakes his head. He knows. He is the only one who knows why she is so worried. "Force 2 leader, report in now or I'm coming in after you."

There is no reply. She turns to the other troops in the trench, readying them for the final strike. Seconds later, the power plant behind them explodes in a ball of white hot flame, sending their enemies scrambling back from their defensive positions.

"Starscream!!!!" she cries in agony, but no one answers her call. She streaks from cover only to have her arm grabbed, her companion pulling her back into the trench.

"There is nothing you can do now."

She looks at him in rage, ready to swing her fireball cannon on him, her loyalist of friends. But the rage leaves her. With desperation, she calls to the Force leaders. No one replies. "Subcommander, report!"

Over intracom, the toneless answer comes. "Target drone destroyed, causing meltdown in the core energon processor. Our enemies will not have use of the facility in the near future. Probable hypothesis: 93.4% probability the facility can be taken and repaired now."

She screams over the comlink, imagining her fireball cannon pointed at the Subcommander's head and blasting repeatedly. "You bastard!! We had warriors in there! You'll pay for those fourteen lives. I'll see to it personally." He'll pay for your death, Starscream, I swear it. Shockwave will die by my own hand if I have to take Megatron on to get him, she vows to herself. The large, dark blue robot, her companion, listens to her thoughts, carefully, and says nothing.

She orders the remainder of her troops forward to take the remains of the power plant, and to search for surviviors. She knows there will be none.

The connection of a intrasystem comlink stirred Booster from her rest and her old dreams. After seconds of sitting motionless, she leapt from Sludge's back to the ground.

"What wrong?" Swoop asks, looking up from the television. Sludge's head swivels back with a confused look as well, while Snarl continued in his 'sun bathing'.

"Turbo wants me. I can come back, later?"

"Sure. We like Booster," Swoop shook his head in an affirmative, the brontosaur Dinobot mimicking the motion. Booster smiled, transforming from the tiger mode to her robot form, taking off into the air and heading toward the mountain area that surrounded the Triptobot's old ship, the Iron Wing.

* * *

He sat perched on a high ledge above the Iron Wing as the Triptobots gathered around. As always, the everpresent Breaker was again perched on his shoulder, and a small smile lay on his face as if it'd had been molded that way. Turbo greeted them each as they took up their places on the ledge near him. One by one they made their way up, Booster arriving last, sliding down from the mountain top onto the ledge below.

"What's up Turbo? What's wrong?" Sky Shot asked, looking terribly uncomfortable in his robot mode, but doing his leader the honor of facing him. But he sat very close to the cliff face.

"Nothing, Sky Shot. But Commander Optimus Prime has informed me of a need to properly access our fighting abilities. We have a war game scheduled for tomorrow and I wanted to inform all of you. I also have a question for all of you."

The gathered Triptobots looked on expectantly.

"How do you feel about joining the Autobots?"

Silence. Each stirred uncomfortably, with the exception of Breaker, who already knew what the question would be, Star Blade, who implacable facade never shattered, and Booster, whose hooded optics showed her answer crystal clear.

"I heard of the falling out you had with the Aerialbots, Sky Shot," he waved off the protest from the flyer. "No, it's alright. I expected to have some problems. There are going to be alot of changes, and I'm sorry. If you wish, I will help in the repairs of the Iron Wing, " he motioned down to the hulking craft below them, nestled snuggly between the mountain cliffs. "And any of you who wish to leave may. I know this was not your mission."

It was true. Stargazer's last wish was to apologize to Prime. He'd passed on this obligation to Turbo, and now the Triptobot leader would make up for all those who'd left Cybertron all those years ago, by fighting for them with all he had. But no one spoke. Each in turn shook their heads, from the single sideways motion of the stoic Star Blade to the enthusiastic vibrating of Breaker that shook Turbo's shoulders and wings.

"Nope, you can't get rid of us that easy. We'll stick it out with these twits," Turfkicker answered, and Turbo rolled his optics as the cheer went up around him.

"Stick with the Twits! Stick with the Twits!" and everyone lapsed into raucous laughter, except the impassive Star Blade, and Booster.

Chapter 9

They'd picked a perfect day for war games. The desert plain was still as death, not a bit of sand out of place. Suddenly, everything was out of place. Turfkicker's huge wheels had perfect traction in the desert, kicking up a sandstorm all around him. His opponent stumbled, pushing the stirred filth from their air circulators with huge outbursts of air, and scanning the horizon, looking for the Triptobot. He smiled to himself, seeing them perfectly through his vision-enhanced visor. The tank introduced as Warpath swiveled his turret, taking a pot shot in hopes of starting him out of his sandstorm. Turfkicker laughed, shook his head and looked up.

The Air Wing Turbo, Helicopter Star Blade, and Flatjet Sky Shot were engaged in easy flying maneuvers with two of the Aerialbots and an Autobot plane named Powerglide. Taking perfect aim, even in the middle of his homemade sandstorm, Turfkicker fired his beam-outfitted weapon up, taking Skydive out of the game. The Aerialbot swore to himself as he flew away from the dusty plain.

As the dust storm began to dissipate, the Autobots inside were revealed, still confused, to the awaiting Triptobots. Booster streaks forward and lands a hit on Blaster from behind, taking him out of the game. She ducked a shot from Bumblebee, but Sunstreaker lands a hit and she too is out of the game.

From above, Turbo and Breaker glide down, easily avoiding the Autobots who are forced to look up into the sun. Up above, Star Blade hovers silently as Silverbolt flashes forward, only to transform to robot mode and move behind the stunned Aerialbot with a lightning fast motion, scoring a hit and taking him out of the game. Without looking behind him, the black and white Triptobot blasted upwards, out of the path of an oncoming Sky Shot, Powerglide in hot pursuit.

Turbo landed smoothly, crouching just in time to duck a shot from Sideswipe. Breaker jumped from his shoulder, changing to a double barreled gun. "Double blast, vector 3.2.6 and 8.7.6," he said in straight, calm words, and twin bolts lanced from Breaker, hitting Sunstreaker and Sideswipe straight in the chest before they knew what was happening. Bright lights on their arm bands lit up, and they were out of the game.

Above, Sky Shot was showing off his aerial prowess, performing a series of backwards loops in an attempt to get behind Powerglide. He wasn't falling for it. The Autobot followed through with all the loops, dives and corkscrews the Triptobot could come up with. Quickly, Sky Shot shifted his course low, down into the mountain crevices. Powerglide swerved, knowing he couldn't fit and not even he was proud or pompous enough to try and fit through those cracks. As he performed a 180 degree turn, Sky Shot popped up in robot mode, hitting the fleeing Autobot in the tail. Even though his modified gun gave no kickback, he stumbled and fell to the ground swearing at himself.

Warpath, Bumblebee, and Blue Streak were all that was left of the Autobot team. Heading for cover, Blue Streak took a pot shot that took Wavehopper out of the game. Not that he was doing much. The Triptobot pilot was in tank mode, sitting on the outskirts of the allotted game area, with Fall-Out and Jumpstart. Together they looked more like a group of cheerleaders than warriors, Fall-Out almost falling over clapping for his team.

From above, Star Blade free-fell to the Earth in robot mode, stopping himself barely in time to avoid a collision with desert floor. Positioning his right arm in front of him, a small panel moved aside to reveal a small weapon of sorts. Tiny beam-disks shot out at high speeds, hitting Bumblebee in the back and sent the little yellow Autobot's arm band flashing.

Warpath spun his turret, still going in the opposite direction, aimed, and took an off balance Star Blade out of the game. From his vantage point on top of a boulder he was struggling to keep his balance on, Blue Streak fired at Turbo, but the shot went wide. A startled cry to his left called his attention away. Turfkicker had taken up position on top of Warpath, and from his vantage point, the red Autobot couldn't get a shot. The green Triptobot made a face and leapt away just as Blue Streak fired, his beam hitting his teammate instead. "Hey! Who's- Zap! -side are you- Pow! -on, anyways!"

"Ooops, sorry 'bout that, I mean, I was tryin' to hit Turfkicker, but he moved and....." his reply was cut short as one of the game beams hit him from above. Looking up, the smiling form of Sky Shot sat perched above him on a higher ledge.

"Game goes to the Triptobot team," came Prowl's voice over the intracom. "Return to Ark."

"All right Prowl. What did you think of them now?" Prime asked, reviewing the scene recorded by SKYSPY on Teletran's screen. Heat sensors showed the Triptobot Turfkicker wheeling around in a cloud of dust, encircling the starting Autobots.

Prowl made a noise that might have been a sigh. "Commander, there is a 89.2 percent chance that they are the most obnoxious, loud-mouthed, foul-mouthed, childish Transformers I have seen since the Dinobots."

Prime's optics flickered in a startled expression, trying to decide if his lieutenant was joking or if Prowl was serious. He finally decided on serious.

"I have also rated there effectiveness in combat at 94%, allowing for the probability casualties incurred in the game would have been avoided in actual combat. That is the highest

efficiency rate of any of our patrol teams, with the major exception of the combiners."

"Indeed. What is your recommendation?"

"I recommend reassignment to Cybertron."

Optics flickered again. "Cybertron? I don' think I can agree. Look at the major part of their attack. They made use of the Earth terrain to a maximum advantage. They won't be able to hide behind sandstorms on the front. Plus, I don't think they're ready for it."

"Ready or not, Commander, they could be of extreme use to Ultra Magnus back on Cybertron. The sandstorm was more for...'show' than anything else."

"From your own review, you state they're childish. I would think childlike is a more fitting description. I can't believe they actually have the character or strength for an all out war. They wouldn't make it a day."

"Prime, if they wish to be Autobots, they will have to fight where they're best suited. We have proved to have a sufficient force here on Earth as it is. But Ultra Magnus is loosing ground on Cybertron. We haven't sent the Aerialbots there because of our lack of airpower here and because they're the most newly built and inexperienced. The Triptobots are well balanced team and a lot older than any of the combiners. I have to stay with my recommendation."

"Thank you. I'll have to give it some thought."

"Do you see? Here, if you'd waited 3 seconds later or had moved 2 seconds sooner, we wouldn't have lost you," Turbo pointed to Booster's image. Deep within the confines of the Iron Wing, the Triptobots were gathered in their own private war room. Before them stood a huge holographer table replaying, in fullest details, the war game. Images of Booster and Turfkicker stood in suspended animation on the edge of the holographic dust storm. Hanging in mid air were Turbo, Sky Shot, and Star Blade, and the opposing Autobots.

Booster shook her head in agreement with his statement. "Yes. I moved too fast. I couldn't see well enough through the sand to pick out both of those yellow Autobots."

"Exactly," Turbo smiled and tapped a control on the side of the table and the image changed. Booster deleted, as well as a few Autobots and most of the raging cloud. The image cleared and focused on Star Blade. "Alright. Here, Star Blade. Your own attack would have worked perfectly if you'd waited till you landed before taking Bumblebee out of the game. Warpath caught you off balance, or else you could have easily ducked that shot."

"Yeah, Star Blade, don't go gettin' rusty on us," joked Turfkicker. Pulling a little metal rod from his chest compartment, he began bending and unbending it in boredom.

Star Blade thundered under his breath, and shook his head at Turbo's assessment.

"Last. Wavehopper..."

"Hey! They were cheating. I was not even in the game."

"But you were supposed to be!" replied Breaker, perched on Turbo's shoulder. He pointed an accusing finger at the blue and gray pilot Triptobot. Wavehopper made a face under his faceplate and crossed his optics, swearing under his breath, "Kiss-up."

"That's enough. Breaker is right though. You should have been on the move at least. And Fall-Out and Jumpstart should have been too. Even if you don't participate in the fight, that makes you no less of a target."

"But one shot could never have taken me out!"

Turfkicker shook his head, now poking his little rod through the Warpath image's head. "Really, Turbo. It wasn't a fair test. Hoppy here has been tested to survive a blast from a Primus damned fusion cannon, though maybe not in the best of shape. These guys don't have anything that could scratch him." Wavehopper crossed his arms and looked confident under his faceplate, feeling better with his teammate's endorsement.

Turbo made a noise close to a sigh. "I understand that, but they obviously were not going to fire on us with real weapons. It was merely a test. I was merely hoping we could have done a little better at it."

The approximated sound of a human cough came from behind the group, and the swiveled as a unit. Optimus Prime stood stooped in the doorway of the war room, the Iron Wing's ceilings made for a more medium built Transformer. "Actually Turbo, your team did far better than expected."

"Oh thanks. We didn't know you had such low expectations," came the flippant reply from Turfkicker.

Prime ignored him. He stepped forward, opening his clenched fist and revealing the blue energon cube Turbo had supplied him with before. "I have some questions about this."

Adopting an Australian style accent, Turfkicker quoted, "Tastes like static, but you can live on it." A groan from the rest of his team mates shut him up. Standing, Star Blade gestured and the Triptobots filed out, leaving Prime and Turbo to talk.

"Quite an incredible displayer," Optimus commented, looking at the frozen scene in the center of the table.

"Jumpstart and Fall-Out are quite proud of it. But, what is it you wished to know about those energon cubes?"

"Wheeljack's been examining this one. The energy concentration is nearly 72%. That's over 40% more than our energon cubes or the Decepticons."

Turbo looked acutely surprised. "Really? Well, the processor onboard the Iron Wing isn't Jumpstart's or Fall-Out's. It was already in this ship when we left Triptohex, it might have been one of the other scientist's experiments."

"Well, I'd like to have Wheeljack study your energon processor."

"Of course. Anything else?"

Prime shook his head, setting the cube down, and crossing his arms. "Yes. On the recommendation of my chief strategist, I'm reassigning you to Cybertron. Our forces there are in need of bolstering and he believes your team can be of greater use to Ultra Magnus than to us here."

Turbo nodded slowly, whether in shock or contemplation, Prime could not tell. "Of course, sir. We should have the Iron Wing space ready within the week, so your scientist will have enough time to take a look at the processor or anything else onboard. We'll just need the coordinates."

Now it was Prime's turn to be surprised. "You don't have the coordinates to Cybertron? The homeworld?"

A trace of a smile appeared on Turbo's face. "Well, no. We're all newly constructed on Triptohex, so we had no idea how to get home. Most of the navigation equipment was stripped for replacement parts on the colony world."

"What about Jumpstart? He was one of the original colonists."

"But he wasn't a pilot on the ships, nor any part of the crew. He was just another passenger with a less than perfect memory circuit in the first place and a terrible sense of direction. That's what took us so long to find any of the Autobots. We finally heard about Earth through a Pakled trader near the Erandi system." He chuckled at himself, and shrugged his shoulders. Prime nodded and stooped, passing through the war room's door, down the main way, and out into the open air and sunshine of Earth.

Chapter 10

"Don't you have somewhere else to be?" asked Tracks, swerving off to the left and following the pattern of his assigned patrol. Behind him, the gaudy, tiger-striped third form of the Triptobot Booster, a low riding sportscar, followed him, and above, the flatjet Sky Shot winged far from sight of any one.

"Nope. We're not mechanics and we're not gonna hang around the ship all day," answered Sky Shot over the intracom.

"Then find someone else to tail!" huffed Tracks, putting on the gas, so to speak, and racing away. Behind him, Booster revved her engine and made ready to head off after him.

"Aw, forget it Boost. Let's find something better to do," Sky Shot said, circling low enough for her to see him through the clouded night.

"You go find something. I'm outta here," she commented, performing a tight U-turn that barely missed toppling a group of trash cans. Booster headed out of the city, onto the deserted highway, Sky Shot still trailing her from above. Out of the city limits, she streaked forward. Low and aerodynamic, the wind raced past her with an audio-splitting shriek as she reached over 120 miles per, chewing dust and gravel up into the atmosphere. Now this is freedom, she thought to herself.

Suddenly, a beeping from her intracom pulled her away from her wandering consciousness. "What the shock do you want now!" she yelled at the flatjet paging her. "Well, if you were listening in on the Autobot frequency, you'd've noticed. There's a ruckus over at the ore processing plant just outside that town we left. I think we should go check it out."

"What the pits do I look like, the night security?! Let the damn Autobots have them, see if I care," she pressed her self harder, reaching a record speed of 189 mph, right before she saw a sharp turn in the road before her. Booster's brakes screeched, and she transformed to robot mode, taking out a good bit of the Oregon forest as she crashed to the earth.

"Hah! Even Autobots can drive better than that!," Sky Shot commented, chuckling at her over the intracom. As she looked up, only the lights of his engines were visible through the darkness, streaking away.

She sat in the darkness for a incalculable amount of time, either minutes or years, she couldn't tell. Still as death, she sat thinking. What has happened to me? Who am I? Am I Booster, or am I Streaks? I don't know......Do I even care anymore? In the silence, she lifted herself to her feet and looked down on herself. The gaudy tiger-stripes were beautiful to Booster and Streaks was disgusted with them. Inside her head, two minds fought for control. A young one and an old, one too new and one far more experienced. Finally, she transformed back to her sportscar mode, and raced toward the ore plant, Booster having won. For the moment...

"Put that down! We didn't come here for souvenirs, you buffoon!" Hook yelled. The target of the reproach, Scavenger, stopped short of picking up one of the fleshling ore plant workers. The worker scrambled farther back into the corner, head flying back and forth, looking for an escape route not blocked by huge robotic legs.

"But..but I..," stammered Scavenger. Hook turned in disgust, and the human took the opportunity to make a dash for it. Scavenger didn't even notice his would-be souvenir escape. He turned back in time to see Starscream heading their way.

"Do you have it?" the Decepticon second-in-command asked, looking to Hook. The Constructicon leader handed over an odd conglomeration of wires and some kind of circuit breakers, obviously hurriedly made. "Are you sure this will work?" Starscream scoffed.

"At least this part will. Don't ask me about the rest of this supposed 'strategy'," Hook scoffed back, crossing his arms. Starscream fumed at the hardly concealed insult on his plan, but decided that finishing the work for it was more important than revenge on the Constructicon's arrogant remarks.

Behind them, the Autobot patrol team's arrival was sparking battle. From the upper ramparts of the human plant, the Decepticon's fired continuously, forcing the other robots to take cover. The barrage from above was answered sporadically with pot shots from the Autobot side.

Behind one of the large collapsed catwalks, Brawn and Windcharger readied for a hit-and-run. To their left, Prowl was directing Blue Streak, Hound, Inferno and Red Alert over intracom, who were trying to circle around the Deceps without much success.

Brawn was caught in mid-transformation by a tap on the shoulder. Swinging around, he and Windcharger fired simultaneously at the hovering jet behind them. It crashed to the ground, their shots strafing over it. "Primus! What the shock are you doing here?!" Windcharger yelled at Sky Shot.

"Well, excuse me. I didn't know this affair was invitation only," the Triptobot countered.

"This isn't a game, punk. Back off and let the pro's handle it," Brawn replied, transforming to jeep mode, Windcharger following suite. Revving their engines, both of the smaller Autobots streaked away from their cover, firing shots and swerving away from return artillery. Both of them made it behind the 'Cons, forcing them to split their attention.

Prowl and the others split up as well, moving off and splitting the 'con's attention even further. Finally tiring of simple exchange of fire, the opposing warriors began moving away from their vantage points, Thrust leaping down completely, two Constructicons followed. They were now on equal footing.

"Aw, I can do this," Sky Shot said to himself, blasting forward. He maneuvered casually away from the shots from the ramparts, but forgot completely about the Decepticons below him. Bonecrusher pointed upwards and caught the Triptobot in the belly. He crashed into a wall, groaning to himself. "Cheater! What a jackass, that was a cheap shot."

Around him, the battle went on. No one seemed to notice the prostrate plane in the background, and Sky Shot was happy for it. All he needed was one of the Autobots to come along, and find him like that. With a viscous sound of twisted metal, he transformed to robot mode, righting himself. A second before he reverted back, a foot caught him in the chest. Looking up, the Triptobot saw the smiling face of the Decepticon jet warrior, Thundercracker. "Pay back time," Thundercracker told him, bending to catch the smaller robot by the neck.

"Sure, don't mind if I do," he replied, using his huge, triangular arms to slice into Thundercracker's leg. With a yell of pain, the jet warrior leapt back, but did not release his grasp on the Triptobot's throat. Hefting Sky Shot into the air, Thundercracker slammed him into the wall. He repeated the process till Sky Shot thought his head would split open from the excessive pounding. But held at arm's length, the Triptobot could do nothing more than squirm, swiping at his attacker worthless strikes.

Suddenly, Thundercracker stumbled to the right, thrown off balance by a well placed blast. Turning, he saw Red Alert pointing his particle-beam rifle shakily. "Let him go!" he shouted with a less than complete confidence. With the Decepticon's attention drawn away, Sky Shot summoned his shrapnel blaster from subspace, and took a shot right in Thundercracker's chest. The Decepticon stumbled backwards from the blow, loosening his grasp on his Triptobot prey, sending Sky Shot flying away and crashing to the ground. Thundercracker stood clutching his wounds, energon and lubricant leaking from the hundreds of tears in his chassis.

Rubbing his head, Sky Shot lifted his head. This'll teach me to go out without the gang. Next time, I'm dragging Turfkicker along, and I don't care if there IS a Star Trek marathon on..... The Triptobot's thoughts were interrupted by the crunch of a foot landing on his back. "Get off! What do I look like, a welcome mat!" A hollow, high-pitched laugh came from above him, but from his position, Sky Shot couldn't turn his head to see who it might be. But he guessed it wasn't a friend.

"This one will do?" the high-pitched voice asked.

Another voice answered, "As well as any."

"Fine." The whining sound of energy building up to firing strength buzzed in Sky Shot's audios, and he squirmed, his awkward shape and the foot planted firmly on his spine making it impossible to escape or even move. "Don't worry, Autobot," came the high-pitched voice through the rising whine, "This won't hurt me a bit." Two hollow laughs was all the Triptobot heard before the world went dark and soundless.

"It was perfectly legitimate question. I just wanted to know if you wanted it checked up on. I mean, if you can't remember the way back to the homeworld..." Ratchet explained to the fuming Triptobot, who stood with fists clenched by the side of the table.

"No, I don't want it checked up on! My memory core is just fine, and Wheeljack, I'm gonna rip off your blinkers for this," Jumpstart pounded his fists on the table, sending the canisters of liquid energon tilting wildly.

"Aw, come now Jumpstart. Ratchet's just medically interested. Besides, everybody knows that's why you became such a good scientist. You never could find your way out of the lab!" the Autobot blinked.

"Hurumph! I wouldn't let your witch doctor near me with a ten foot welder, pah!"

"I resent that remark," Ratchet replied, steamed by the slight on his medical prowess.

Wheeljack decided it was getting a little out of control. "Settle down guys. No need to get hot under the axles about....." he was interrupted by the wailing of an alarm. Over the intracom, Prowl's voice came, stolid and impassive despite his words.

"Attention, all medical personnel to the Repair Bay. Emergency repairs required. Repeat, all medical personnel to the Repair Bay. Emergency repairs required at once."

The three medics were out of their seats and racing toward Repair Bay before the message was repeated.

The scene was gruesome. Prowl and Hound were struggling with Inferno's prone and leaking form, wrestling the big Autobot onto a table with care. Blue Streak limped in, unsuccessfully balancing himself on Brawn's shoulder. Windcharger and Red Alert struggled with a headless corpse that was almost unrecognizable, lying it on the table and backing away.

Ratchet was at Inferno's side, popping open the chest hatch. Circuits were seared and clogged with leaking lubricants, the metallic infrastructure rods warped, and energon pumped out to fill the big red Autobot's chest cavity. Increasing magnification on his optics, through the torrent of bright liquid he could see the problem. The blast that had hit Inferno had nicked his energon pump and melted part of his air circulator to it as well. With a micro-laser scalpel and a mini-welder on hand, Ratchet began the delicate surgery.

Far from the surgery, Wheeljack and Jumpstart tended to the less severe wounds. Blue Streak's knee had been nearly severed by a blind shot from one of the Decepticons, and part of Prowl's flexmetal face was melted to his helmet, one optic slanting away at a strange angle. "Jumpstart, I need a joint welder," Wheeljack turned away from Blue Streak, pointing back into the Bay. He looked back, noticing the Triptobot's absence. "Jumpstart? What are you doing!"

Standing over the corpse Red Alert and Windcharger had brought in, Jumpstart wasn't paying attention. "What the pits happened to you? Primus, this'll take forever to fix," he was saying to himself. Wheeljack came up behind him, shaking his head and laying a hand on the Triptobot's shoulder. He recognized the corpse as Sky Shot.

"Jumpstart, I'm really sorry.." he began, only to be cut off by Jumpstart's strange look.

"About what?"

"Well, uh, your friend here. I mean.."

Jumpstart smiled and shook his head. "Nope, he'll be fine. It'll just take me a little while, and a heck of a lot of spare parts," the Triptobot told him, setting one of the energon shockers on the open circuitry of Sky Shot's chest. Wheeljack watched him with a look between amazement and fear. Not many physician's made the diagnosis that the patient could be saved when the head was absent.

"Jumpstart, don't. His head's gone, there aren't any salvageable cerebro circuits left."

"Ah, oh ye of little faith. You think I'm crazy, don't you? A little space happy. Hmm," setting the probe for the appropriate charge, Jumpstart sent a shock of electrical energy through the lifeless body. Suddenly, the corpse popped back to life, sending Wheeljack and the other injured Autobots skittering away. Sky Shot's headless body struck out, its arms flailing blindly. Jumpstart tried to hold him down.

"What the.....Stop it! Stay still," Wheeljack yelled, grabbing a pinwheeling arm carefully to avoid the razor edges.

"He can't hear you. His cerebro circuits aren't in his head, their in his chest compartment, even in robot mode. But all his audio-visual relays were in his head." After a few moments, the struggling subsided, and they were able to persuade Sky Shot to lie down. Jumpstart started repairs on his chest wounds, and Wheeljack returned to his work on Blue Streak's leg.

And in the silent, dark world all his own, Sky Shot knew something was wrong. Something was very wrong.........

Chapter 11

The silence before dawn was all encompassing. The plain outside the Ark's resting place was still, with one exception. Running along a prearranged route, a tank rumbled over the uneven ground. It was as it had been for years, with one exception. On the tank's roof sat a cross-legged robot of black and white, silent and unmoving. The tank, a part of the great guardian robot Omega Supreme, had no qualms in particular about this. So long as his passenger honored their unspoken agreement. And all was in silence, as it had been before and would stay so.

Hours passed as the sun rose above the horizon, and no word was spoken between the two guardians. Suddenly, Star Blade's head swiveled slightly to the right, his optic catching a flicker of motion that did not belong. Increasing magnification, the source was still not revealed. He sent out a nearly undetectable echo wave, which reflected back to him his prey. Small, metallic, exactly 100 meters to the left. On a low-band frequency, so close to the system the tank below's own relay of thought patterns that it might be called a form of robotic telepathy, Star Blade transmitted a message. Scanning...Identify? Unauthorized metallic lifeform scanned in vicinity.

"Where?" the tank asked aloud in heavy timbre, unperturbed by the words forming in his head.

Relaying coordinates. Suggested course of action?

"No unauthorized lifeform detected. Reconfirm."

Again the echo wave was sent out, and again it returned with the same answer. Star Blade was thoroughly confused, but he showed no signs of it on the outside. Confirmed. Redirect course, vector 3.4. The tank turned, heading toward the radar phantom.

The unauthorized lifeform, Decepticon spy Laserbeak, sat perched above the two Transformers, thoroughly sure of his abilities of secrecy, until they began to move towards him. He'd been waiting till they had moved away from the Ark entrance so he could make his way inside, but the change in course of the two Auto-boobs below had caught his attention. They couldn't have known he was there, he was completely invisible to radar, so it must have been a random motion.

Visual contact established. Identify: Decepticon, condor, possible cassetecon.

"Possibilities: Laserbeak, Buzzsaw. Course of action: Terminate threat."

Laserbeak heard it, but couldn't believe his audios. It seemed as if that slow Autobot tank was speaking to itself. And he'd been found out, he had no doubt about it. The Decepticon lifted up, ready to streak away into the night, when a shower of electrically charged, razor edged tiny stars lanced out, striking him in the wings and back. He squaked in pain, turning to find the black and white tank rider standing, the small star-spitting weapon embedded in his arm aimed right at him. Quickly, he transmitted the failure of his mission, and rushed away from the Ark.

Star Blade sat back down, again content to roll around on the tank endlessly. Threat neutralized.

"Reporting infiltration attempt to Optimus Prime," Supreme said aloud, and with that done, went back to his patrol.

"You think they'd give up with that by now. I mean, it hasn't worked in years!" said Jazz, leaning forward on the table.

"Indeed. The Decepticons have not sent Laserbeak or Buzzsaw since we installed the new defense systems. It is very suspicious that they would try again," Prime stated.

"Decepticon stupid. Try anything," Grimlock added his two cents, which was obviously worth much less than that to the Autobot leader or his lieutenants. They tried to ignore the Dinobot as he put his feet up on the conference table.

"But," Turbo began, "Laserbeak did not set off the alarms." He didn't look particularly comfortable, just a bit shorter than most of the others, causing him to look up even when everyone was seated. Behind him, Breaker sat on the chair back, the methodical clanking of his feet on the metal of it giving the other Autobots headaches.

"He was out of range. Omega Supreme reports Laserbeak was not close enough to set off the alarms," Prowl reported. Turbo shook his head in understanding.

The meeting was over minutes later, and Turbo was first out of the room. He scrambled away at almost a dead run, happy to be away from the other Autobots. He'd really made a fool of himself. Of course the alarms didn't go off for a reason, no sense asking stupid questions. But he'd had to say something. Turbo'd sat through the entire meeting trying to figure out a way to disappear without anyone noticing.

A sharp clank from Breaker's fist on his shoulder got his attention. "Where we goin'?"

"Good question, friend," came a voice from behind. Turbo whirled around, self-conscious enough not to show his surprise too thoroughly. It's amazing how someone his size can sneak up on you, Turbo thought, looking to Prime who stood farther down the hall he'd just made his way through.

"Um, just to the Iron Wing. Fall-Out and your mechanics should be done with the repairs to the ship soon, sir. I thought, perhaps, I'd go and find the rest of the Triptobots, um, my team mates, Commander." He stood there, feeling a bigger fool than ever, unable to move. This was Prime's turf and Prime was leader. Not that Turbo had any big problems with not being the leader, but he just felt very jittery around the larger robot whenever they weren't on the Iron Wing.

"Good. Do you mind if I send Wheeljack to look over your energon processor now?"

Turbo shook his dumbly and blinked his optics. "No, no problem, sir. I'll go get him, and tell him, Commander Prime." He would have used just about anything to sneak away at that moment. Trotting down the hall, he didn't relax until he far from sight by the Autobot leader. Another clank from Breaker, this time on the side of his head. "Hmm?"

"You're actin' nuts. What's wrong? Why you goin' all screwy?"

Turbo almost sighed, slowing his quick shuffle forward. "Thank you for the moral support, Breaker."

"You're welcome," Breaker replied, any sarcasm the Triptobot leader had learned from Turfkicker was lost on his little companion.

And farther down the hall, Prime stood by the conference room door, shaking his head. He was seriously doubting his decision to take Prowl's recommendation, but what was done was done. Optimus could only hope Turbo's strange behavior would not hamper their effect in combat. Anything else, the little robot would have to figure out for himself.

"Me Sludge win!" The Dinobot stomped his massive feet, shaking his victorious checker's game to pieces and scattering it over the landscape. Booster put a hand in front of her face and turned her head as one of the game tokens flew at her.

"Hey!" Swoop squaked. "Sludge not w...," he stopped as the Triptobot female struck him in the leg from her place on the shaded forest floor. "Why you do that? He not win. He not play game right."

"Shh. Let him enjoy his victory," she replied. Sludge paid no attention to their whispered conversation as he began trying to set up the checkers board again, still in brontosaur mode. He finally decided he might need a prehensile hand to do it, he transformed to his still massive robot form, trying in vain to remember just how the pieces went. "Besides, if he didn't win soon, I'd never get him interested in the game."

"Why you want Sludge get interested in game?"

"Well, I like this Earth game. Didn't you like it?"

"Me Swoop like it when me win. You cheat for me too?," he asked, his voice sounding a little hurt. He didn't like the idea that he hadn't actually won.

"No, you won fair, really. Hey, look at the sky. Time to go," she said, pointing at the sinking sun. Heading back over to Sludge, who was ready for another game, she shook her head and smiled. "I'll come back tomorrow if you want."

"Where you go?" the Dinobot asked.

"Turbo wants us. Don't want to mess with the boss, you know." A snort from the till then silent Snarl signaled his agreement.

Swoop stepped up behind her, hefting the 28" TV that looked like little more than a hand held to him. "Come back, watch Sailor Moon?"

If she'd been able to, she would have stuck out her tongue, but as it was, her sour face gave a good clue to her feelings about that idea. "Yuck. Show about little Earth females in short skirts?" The Dinobots shook their heads vigorously. "Me wait till Savage Dragon is on, thanks," she replied, picking herself off the ground and rolling her optics.

Moments before she took off, Booster's attention was again pulled to the sky. Bright, hot red lights streaked across the sky above her. Increasing magnification, she picked out the aircraft making them. The Dinobots did as well.

"Decepticons!" came the unanimous statement.

His plan was working perfectly. Starscream stood on a mountain ledge just before the entrance to the Ark. Not an alarm sounded, not a pebble out of place, and it was only seconds before the attack. But Starscream wasn't at all happy with the way things were turning out, because on the ledge to his left, Megatron stood. The Decepticon Supreme Commander had decided that his second-in-command's plan had enough merit for him to take credit for. If it failed, he always had Starscream to blame. It was his idea anyway.

Inside the Ark's Repair Bay, just before the Decepticons had entered the restricted airspace of the Autobot's headquarters, one of their bedrest patients was having a hissyfit. Sky Shot, still a headless monstrosity of a Transformer, unable to transform to jet mode for lack of energy, began banging on the walls. His razor edged arms embedded in the metal every second or so, causing the banging to come at an annoyingly unsteady rate.

"Quiet! Some of us are trying to rest!" Inferno yelled from his recharging bed. He raised himself up on his elbows, he groaned and laid back down, remembering his room mates lack of auditory sensors. "Ratchet. Hey doc!"

The white Autobot medic rushed in from the other room, immediately finding the problem. The Triptobot had circumvented the problem of his arms sticking in the walls, and was now pounding his headless shoulders against the Repair Bay wall. Every few moments he clutched his chest in pain, or it looked like, though the Autobot doctor couldn't quite tell. He tried to move behind the flailing Triptobot, but his whirling blade-sharp arms where a hindrance on any move forward.

"Ratchet, let me give you a hand," Inferno said, pulling himself up again.

"No, I'll catch him." In actuality, he could have used a hand, but Wheeljack and Jumpstart where busy on the Triptobot's ship, and Hoist wasn't around either. With a quick step, he moved behind Sky Shot, grabbed the smaller robot around the waist, and got a plethora of cuts all over his arms for his trouble. "Calm down already," he told the Triptobot, knowing well it wouldn't do a bit of good.

Setting the Transformer on one of the diagnostics tables, Ratchet kept a hand on his chest to keep him from getting up again. He glanced at the readings on the diagnostics, then began to adjust them again, sure that the readings couldn't be right.

Suddenly, the screen blazed, showing a major malfunction inside the Triptobot, as Sky Shot pulled himself up again and clutched at his chest, pulling off the medplates Jumpstart had welded there only hours before and white lighting began engulfing the Transformer in fingers of fire. Ratchet couldn't tell where any of it was coming from.

And in Sky Shot's death silent, midnight black world, a silent scream of unending agony tried to escape from a voice synthesizer that wasn't there. Then all was engulfed in flames.

Optimus Prime wandered through the halls of the Iron Wing. He wasn't precisely sure what had brought him there, but he was driven all the same. Perhaps it was his doubts in his own decisions about the new team of Transformers, or the cold fear he'd seen in their leader's optics when he'd stare up at him. Or maybe it was the lingering feeling of familiarity of the strange newcomers. But none of that mattered. Prime stooped low, entering the energon processor chamber, standing silently as he watched Wheeljack and Jumpstart pull the great machine apart.

"Blech! What in the smelting pits is this?!" Wheeljack wretched, trying to force out the bit of blue energon he'd taken from the Triptobot scientist.

"Its just energon, what did you expect?" Jumpstart rolled his optics and smacked Wheeljack on the back with a resounding clang. "72% pure, 40% better than yours, eh?"

The Autobot turned on heel, and started, seeing Optimus there for the first time, trying his best for some dignity in front of his leader while still looking violently ill. "Optimus, I don't care how pure these things are! There the most revolting thing I have ever tasted and I've been to the bars at Galactica Elindi!"

Prime smiled under his face plate. "Really Wheeljack, it can't be that bad."

"Yes it can."

Jumpstart merely stood with his arms crossed over his chest, glaring. Prime was about to dismiss himself and get out of the way before the obviously inevitable argument broke out. He didn't get the chance. The ship shook all around them for a moment, then lifted upwards.

Over his comlink, Perceptor's voice blared a warning cry. "Decepticons on the premises! Repeat, the Decepticons have penetrated Ark defenses....." Wheeljack straightened up as well, no longer paying attention to Jumpstart. The Triptobot, on the other hand, heard a message of his own, from Wavehopper, who was supposed to be on the Iron Wing's bridge at the moment, reporting similarly to the other Triptobots.

"Triptobots! Assemble at Iron Wing! We're under attack, repeat, Iron Wing's under attack! Get your cans in gear and get them over h**Crackle***.........................."

Long Haul put his foot through the front transparent pleximetal windows of the enemy starship. He landed hard on the robot within, sending the grey and blue Transformer barreling out of his seat, and clanking back into the wall. But the Constructicon didn't have anytime to deal with him more permanently. Behind him, Hook and Soundwave flew in through the whole he'd just made.

"You think you can fly this bucket?" he asked the communications expert, then thought better of the comment after Soundwave caught him with a nasty glare from a completely impassive face.

"Yes. Now get out."

Long Haul was just about to finish off the grounded pilot and go out for the rest they'd detected aboard, when a bit of errant motion caught his optic. As he turned, he caught sight of a pair of blue and grey feet receding down the hall and disappearing around a corner. Oh well, he thought to himself. Makes it more fun this way anyhow. He trodded down the hall after his prey, content in the fact that he was actually going to rip something up for a change.

Wavehopper's energon pumped irregularly through his body, moved by a racing fuel pump. He whirled to the left, into a branch corridor, as the hatch infront of him exploded inward and flooded the main way with winged warriors. Alright, he thought, trying to calm himself, The main hatch isn't going to get you out. Alright, where's the closest secondary hatch? But he didn't have enough time to bring up an internal schematic of the ship. The Decepticons were moving toward him, and when that green and purple one with the strange head caught up with them, they'd be on the look-out for him. Wavehopper moved slowly, quietly down the hall.

He was suddenly thrown to the floor as the ship rocked beneath him. The Triptobot had a rush of vertigo as his equilibrium kicked in. The rumble of building engine power assured him of what he'd most feared. The dirty Decepti-creeps were trying to steal his ship! Wavehopper had had enough of the lone hero bit. Over the intracom link with the other Triptobots, he bellowed a second warning. Turbo, Star Blade, Booster, anybody!!!! Emergency, Emergency!! Help!

Outside, Booster landed not 50 feet from the shakily rising Iron Wing. At first she thought Wavehopper might be testing the newly fixed engines, but the desperate cry from within and the broken main hatch told her otherwise.

She raced over the broken ground, leaping the last few feet as the ship built its distance from the earth. Booster scrabbled to gain a grip on the wing she'd landed on, trying not to fall. Finally, transforming to her tiger mode, she sunk her huge black claws into the metal, and climbed up the rest of the way. Making her way silently into the main hatch, looking from side to side to make sure it was clear of enemies lying in wait to blow here cerebro circuits out the back of her cranial unit, Booster had a naggin feeling of deja vu. Of well, at least I'm inside the ship this time, she thought, transforming back to robot form, and slinking silently down the way, toward the emergency summon's source.

The Decepticons had wasted no time in coming after the energon processor. But their position wasn't the most strategic. From the cramped main way, they fired into the room defended by Prime, Wheeljack and Jumpstart, who had the tactical advantage of the protection of the walls. Fortunately, Blitzwing couldn't fit inside the Iron Wing in tank mode and Starscream and his jet warriors weapons couldn't cut through the reinforced processing room walls. Still, one stray shot from the Decepticons could hit the energon processor, and the control of the room would be a moot point once they were all engulfed in a flaming plasma fireball. So the Decepticon's shots were more calculated than normal.

Optimus fired his laser rifle down the hall, catching Ramjet in the shoulder. The white coneheaded Decep roared in frustration and surged forward, only to get a heat-missile in the chest from Wheeljack.

"Great. One down, only fifty to go," Jumpstart pessimistically.

Dodging a shot from Thundercracker, Wheeljack snapped back, "I don't see you helping out much!"

"Sorry, but we don't keep a lot of high energy weaponry near the energon processors for one very good reason." A stray shot ricocheted through the door, all the room's occupants ducking and watching as it barely missed the massive machinery behind them. "And there it is."

Suddenly, a flicker of subspace appeared behind Prime, who was to busy to notice. Jumpstart, however, was not, and jumped at it as soon as he saw it. But he was too late. The black form of the Decepticon Skywarp popped into existence, firing at Prime. His shot was knocked off as Jumpstart impacted with him, but it still caught the Autobot leader through the hip and sent him crashing to the ground. The Decepticon and Triptobot landed hard on the ground, but the Triptobot was soon up, flying through the air as the jet warrior kicked him away. Wheeljack shot Skywarp right in the chest, the lance of energy slicing straight through, and the Decepticon immediately slumped back to the floor, knocked unconscious from the shock and injury.

But all of their efforts were for nought. While all their attention was focused on Skywarp, Starscream had moved his team forward and they were just about through the door. The Autobots readied themselves for the final blows, when a shout came up from farther down the hall. "Audio-Visual interrupt. Hurricane blast." The straight, calm words were immediately recognizable. Turbo.

A wailing torrent of light and noise sent the Cons staggering, blinking optics and hands over audio units throughout the group, some of it even pouring into the processing room, causing the Autobots and Triptobot to do the same. A rush of swirling winds blew the off balance Decepticons back down the hall, giving the Triptobot leader enough time to say, still in his calm voice, "Iron Wing, quarter off Section Alpha 2 through 6. Drop bulkheads now." The clang of metal on metal signaled his orders were being obeyed by the onboard computer.

Turbo whirled into the room, Breaker already transformed and at his usual place on the Triptobot leader's shoulder. "Are you alright?" he asked them, centering his attention on the hobbling Autobot leader.

Leaning on Wheeljack's shoulder, hard because of their differences in height, Prime got to his feet. Hefting his laser rifle, he shook his head affirmative. "Now, let's get to the bridge, and get control of your ship back."

Booster slunk toward the bridge. Careful to avoid the now roaming pack of Decepticon warriors who'd failed to take the processing section of the ship, she'd given up on trying to find Wavehopper. It was most likely he was wandering around as well, looking for the way out and trying to circumvent the jets. So she decided to go straight for the source. Grasping her automatic ion blaster, Booster moved closer and closer to the door. Finally, she leapt into the open doorway, centering her weapon at the back of the head of the large blue robot sitting in Wavehopper's usual pilot's seat.

"Back off and I might not splatter your CPU all over the landscape," she shouted, not intending to keep the promise at all. This was her chance. She wanted to rip someone to pieces, the urge was beginning to blind her. But it hadn't yet, and Booster almost dropped her gun as the new pilot turned, revealing his face, or lack there of. "Ss...Soundwave?" her voice held no pomp. It was small and confused.

Soundwave stood there silently as well, listening. He knew this female. From long ago. He could hear conflicting thoughts flickering through her mind, half memories, half dreams. But the communications expert didn't have time for more. From his place near the door, Hook fired, hitting the female in the shoulder and chest, sending her skittering to the floor. But she was only down, and far from out. Transforming to tiger mode, she was up before she'd stopped her skidding, knocking the Constructicon off his feet and sitting on his back, pinning him and making it impossible for further attack. But she did not strike the killing blow.

Inside her head, the battle raged again. The younger personality viciously wished to rip the Decepticon's head from his shoulders. But an older haze of a personality swallowed the urge, holding strong and refusing to relinquish control this time. Both locked in combat, leaving the body defenseless. Hook pushed up, sending her flying backwards and away. Booster want kill!!, screamed part of her. But that part was smothered, and another took its place in front. She did not attack.

"Wait," came the melodious monotone she remembered from far too long ago. Soundwave was staring at her, judging. Would he know? Of course, my good friend is sometimes too perceptive for his own good. Friend? Who is he? Soundwave.

Hook was a patient mechanoid but this was more than enough. He raised his weapon, ready to be rid of the Autobot pest and get back to work, but it was flung out of his hand as he was struck by a laser blast from behind. Turning, the Constructicon caught sight of his assailants. Prime stood wobbly, with Wheeljack's help, an smoking laser rifle pointed into the bridge section. Beside him, Turbo stood, and behind al of them, Jumpstart and Wavehopper's heads popped out, looking about cautiously.

"Stun mode. Twin shots, vectors 9.2.6 and 6.4.4," Turbo's calm words came, Breaker hopping from his shoulder and firing before the Triptobot leader even caught his transformed form. Hook was in no position to duck the shot, taken completely by surprise, and he was easily laid to the floor. Soundwave jumped out of the way, ready to release his cassettecons, but a second blast came and he was to off balance to duck it.

Jumpstart was helping Booster to her feet, unaware of the strange look in her optics. Wavehopper, happy to finally have been picked up after countlessly dodging the jet warriors, did not see either. Turbo was at the console, flicking switches and reading dials, trying to figure out just how to change their course, Breaker behind him in the pilot's seat. Prime leaned on the copilot's chair, unable to actually use the smaller furniture, but gave Wheeljack's shoulders a rest. "Wavehopper," came Turbo's order.

The pilot was next to him in a minute, looking critically at the controls. "We have a problem."

A huff from behind him indicated Jumpstart's amusement at his statement. "No, really?"

"Can you change this ship's course?" Optimus asked the smaller gray and blue Transformer. He looked out of the broken front view, over the receding land and out onto the approaching ocean. The Autobot leader knew exactly where they were headed. The Decepticon's underwater base.

"Um, that could be a problem," the pilot answered, taking his usual seat and sending Breaker scampering out of the way with a rude noise and gesture to show his displeasure at being ousted. Wavehopper's metallic digits flew over the controls, but nothing happened. A few more seconds of endless tapping and clicking, then his fists pounded on the keys. "It's no good. I've been locked out of my own ship!" he yelled. No one thought to point out it wasn't actually his ship. They were far too busy as Soundwave awoke and released his barrage of miniature warriors.

Ravage's fangs sank into Jumpstart's leg before the Triptobot knew what was happening. He wailed in pain, battering the Decepticon with his bare hands to no avail. Wavehopper was pulled away from his work on the consoles as the cassettecon condors buzzed him, leaving streaks of laser fire in their wake. The consoles exploded in a burst of flames as the pilot ducked away. Rumble headed for Turbo, only to be assaulted from above by a flying Breaker. The Triptobot landed hard, kicking the Decepticon back. Aiming the barrels attached to his arms straight ahead, Breaker fired a controlled plasma burst, only to have his own backfire kick him into the console behind him. But Rumble scrambled out of the way, only getting his heels singed.

"Computer. Sequence 359 Theta 8, self-destruct now. 1 minute countdown, start now. Scramble sequences, lock out code 483 Sigma Omni 9 overwrite," Turbo called out, drawing flickering lights and a droning countdown sequence from the damaged computer.

"55 second warning..."

"What are you doing, you Autobot maniac!" yelled Hook, who pulling himself up from the floor and spinning around, aiming his weapon at the Triptobot leader.

"You won't get our energon processor, so get off my ship."

The battle wound down in seconds as the countdown went on, Soundwave taking a blast at the Autobots and Triptobots, buying himself enough time to move to the console. He tapped and slammed at the keys, then hooked into the system as his cassettecons kept his enemies too busy to move him away. But it was only seconds before he disconnected and recalled his warriors, who looked at him in astonishment.

"Now. The countdown is irrevocable. Retreat is the only course," was his answer to them, and Ravage, Buzzsaw, and Laserbeak transformed, taking their place behind the Decepticon's chest plate. However, as always, things weren't so simple with Rumble and Frenzy. They wouldn't call off their attack so easily.

Hook called to Long Haul over the intracom, warning him of the situation, but he got no response. Looking out the shattered veiwscreen, the Constructicon sneered in understanding. Long Haul and the jet warriors were landing out on the ship right in front of them!

"35 second warning..."

Optimus looked up just as Hook made a break out the window. "Turbo, we've got to abandon ship, now.." The Triptobot leader nodded in agreement, motioning to Breaker. The little robot transformed, and Turbo blew out the entire front of the bridge. The landing Decepticons stumbled backwards from the blast, Dirge and Starscream falling off the edge and into the ocean below, unable to transform fast enough. Rumble and Frenzy finally broke off there attack, heading after Soundwave as the communications expert and Constructicon leader headed out.

"25 second warning..."

Optimus, Wheeljack, Jumpstart, Booster, Wavehopper, Breaker and Turbo all climbed through the rubble of the blasted window, dodging pot shots from the fleeing Decepticons. Turbo turned to Wavehopper. "I don't think any of us want to go swimming.." The blue and gray Transformer shook his head, leaping off the ship's edge and transforming in free fall into his third shape, a huge Cybertronian-esque battle cruiser, sending up gigantic waves as he crashed to the sea's surface.

"15 second warning..."

"Oh yea, you stinkin' Autobots ain't gettin' away that easy," yelled Rumble. His arms whirled behind, transforming to piledrivers, which he set to the Iron Wing's hull. The ship shook like a leaf in a hurricane as Frenzy joined in, sending the already off balance Autobots and Triptobots tumbling. Booster and Wheeljack rolled head over heels, off the edge and hit Wavehopper's ship form below with a resounding clang. Prime, his ruined hip already straining to keep him up, fell to his knees and gripped the hull with all his strength to keep from flying off. His arm snapped out and caught the slipping Jumpstart, who was straining to keep a hold on a struggling and squirming Breaker.

"Stop it!"

"No, Turbo's gone! Let me go!"

Optimus swiveled his head, catching a glimpse of a pair of self-satisfied cassettecons flying after Soundwave. He turned back, finding that the Triptobot leader was indeed nowhere to be found.

"5 second warning..."

"Shock! Breaker, there's no time!," Jumpstart yelled, tightening his hold on the writhing little Triptobot. The medic tucked his free arm under Prime's shoulder. "Hold on, I'm not sure this'll work.." were his reassuring words as his leg engines flared to life in a blast of fire, lifting the trio off the Iron Wing. They were barely a meter from the ship when Prime's weight and the awkward balancing act proved to much for Jumpstart's engines, and they began plummeting to the ocean below.

Optimus' hip blazed in agony as it hit the water, salt and water seeping into his wounds and beginning to short out everything. His great weight dragged him down to the ocean bottom, when suddenly an arm thrust through the water's surface, grasping him on the shoulder. Another hand clutched his other arm, dragging him back up. He finally broke the water's surface, water-logged optics catching a glimpse of Wheeljack and the female Triptobot pulling him into Wavehopper.

As Prime sat shaking water from himself and letting it leak from his open wounds, he saw the Iron Wing plunge into the briny depths.

Turbo lay where he'd landed after tumbling back into the control room of the Iron Wing. Breaker's relays were so full of confused, spinning messages that the Triptobot leader couldn't get a link. He couldn't move. He thought about it, but his body wouldn't listen, so he lay immobile on the floor, listening to the computer's droning countdown, and thinking what he knew would be his last thoughts. "I regret that I have but two lives to give to my people.." he would have liked to have been his last words, but his synthesizer wouldn't bring them forth. He would have liked to have smiled at the memories that suddenly blinked through his head at rapid fire, but he couldn't. So he merely listened.

"4...3...2...1...Self-destruct initiated"

A flash of startlingly bright light, a momentary feeling of warmth, and the sensation of water splashing around him, and then everything was gone.

"NNNOOOOOOO!!!!!" Breaker shrieked, clutching his tiny head in agony that wasn't physical pain, but merely the agony of loss unthinkable. The Iron Wing exploded in a grand fireball that flittered away as the water engulfed it. Breaker's circuits were on fire and his body closed down instantly, unable to cope with the shock at that time, letting the little robot rest.

Behind his collapsed form, Booster and Jumpstart stood staring in disbelief, and below them, the moans of the ocean's stress on Wavehopper's hull could not cover his own.

Epilogue
"Your plan was less than successful, Starscream," Megatron's eyes blazed behind his nasty sneer as he looked down on his dripping second-in-command.

"Yes, mighty Megatron," came the placating answer, as Starscream clenched his fist and teeth in anger. How dare he insult my plan! Megatron didn't even think of going after the ship! A warning glance from a smug looking Soundwave ended that line of thought.

Unsatisfied with the answer, Megatron fired at the floor micrometers from the red jet warrior's feet, sending Starscream scrambling to the left just a step or two. "Further failures will not be tolerated! You've cost us enough warriors with this incompetent bungling! Next time you have a plan, keep it to yourself. Do you understand!?"

"I don't see you coming up with anything better," the jet whispered under his breath.

Megatron's eyes blazed as the appeared right before Starscream's face, startling the second-in-command at the suddenness of the Decepticon leader's movement, but he held Megatron's gaze. "WHAT DID YOU SAY?" he growled at the jet.

A thousand pompous comments came to his mind at once, snappy come backs he knew would get his head vaporized in a moment. "Nothing, mighty Megatron," was his only answer, his own optics burning hot red.

It was a charnel house. The Ark had been attacked endlessly as Starscream and the others had attempted to steal the Triptobot's ship, leaving a gouge in the landscape, littered with the barely functional. Jumpstart had put away his grief at the death of Turbo to help in the repairs, only to find Sky Shot had not survived either. Still, he went on in a methodical way, a far off brooding look in his optics as he worked alongside Ratchet and Wheeljack.

Fall-Out sat in a deserted hallway of the Ark, deeply entrenched in his work repairing the huge gashes in the ships circuitry, humming to himself and refusing to face the death of his friends. As long as he had his work, nothing beyond that mattered.

Turfkicker, limping severely from a wound he'd contracted in the fight, didn't go to Repair Bay as ordered. Sitting in the hollow where the Iron Wing had resided, he looked up into the Earth's blue skies, cursing the planet, and wishing they'd never come and wishing he's never heard the word 'Autobot'.

Booster sat in the private quarters she'd been issued, the mental battle for control going full tilt in her mind. Grief and joy passed over her in waves, till she finally shut down to rest mode, content to deal with nothing but old dreams.

Breaker was motionless after waking up from his induced shut down. Every test Jumpstart had run, and every one he'd asked Ratchet to run, indicated the tiny robot was functioning fine, with no injuries from the experience on the Iron Wing. But some things go deeper than physical wounds, and so Breaker sat motionless, optics staring blankly into space until a hysterical laughter broke from him, and unable to stop him, the medics returned him to an induced sleep.

Wavehopper wandered the corridors of the Ark like a lost soul, unable to decide where to go. Passing the limping and those being dragged to the Repair Bay, he did not see. Passing Huffer, who called out for a hand at one of the sparking terminals that seemed to dominate the huge craft, Wavehopper did not care. He walked on.

Star Blade moved silently into the Ark's command center. Standing in the center of the room, with his leg wound newly med-plated, Optimus Prime watched information flicker by on the screen in front of him. He turned to the stoic faced robot, nodding his head in greeting. The Triptobot reciprocated, and in his own strange, eerie, thundering whisper, he spoke to the Autobot leader. "I am now Triptobot leader. We wish to know when our transport to Cybertron shall arrive."

Prime was too tired to hide his surprise. He'd been sure the Triptobots wouldn't have a thing to do with the Autobots after the ordeal, little lone agree to the reassignment to Cybertron. He shook his head, reconsidering his own opinion of the dwindling team. Perhaps Prowl was indeed correct....

"I will contact Ultra Magnus on Cybertron and have transport arranged for your group," Prime replied to the silent, motionless robot standing before him. One nod and Star Blade turned on his heel, again moving silently, out of the room.......

The End..or is it?

Tune in next time for the thrilling sequel to "Homecoming", "Full Circle". Take a tour of the war torn homeplanet of the Transformers through the optics of the Triptobots, and find out the great dilemma tearing Booster apart...or is it Streaks? Find out in "Full Circle".

The End