Optimus Prime and the other Autobots ride up towards the General and his remaining forces. Spike and Carly see how slowly the group is moving and fear for the worst. Sparkplug and Ratchet turn to see them coming and walk over to the transforming bunch as they come to tell them all the grave news.
"Megatron has hostages." Optimus Prime says to them.
"Well ain't that just peachy...", the General bluntly states, "You were supposed to be able to stop him and his thugs and you come back here to tell us he's got our men? I am not impressed with you robot!"
Optimus Prime leans down close to the small man and stares at him with anger, "I'm not to impressed with you either...Human! If you had listened to my advice earlier we wouldn't be in this situation right now, the fact is General...your men are safe...for now."
Ratchet grabs hold of Prime's shoulder to back him off from the General, "Easy Prime...what happened out there?"
"We had the advantage and the perfect space to finish them off...but there were to many human causalities laying about, Megatron used them as a bargaining chip. He knows all to well that I will not endanger life...not even those who don't respect it themselves."
His words carried down to the General and saw he caught his meaning. Sparkplug came up behind Spike and Carly and rested his hands on their shoulders, they all looked up at Optimus and continued to listen to him speak.
"I should have secured the area more, I didn't realize they'd be so many of them laying about...now they've got a foot hold on launching site and will continue to build their vessel. You people have made things much worst, Megatron will not tolerate another stupid attack you're military made against him, he's demanded all of us pull back immediately out of his sight."
The General snickered, "Yeah right, I'm not leaving my men to die out there. We'll regroup and start a whole new attack strategy...this time it will be right!"
"Perhaps you didn't hear him General!” Ironhide walks up after finishing repairs to a human transport vehicle, "You guys got busted and Megs' ain't gonna stand for that crap anymore! If you re-launch your attack, he'll kill all your men and wipe out your entire forces properly this time. I wish I could have gone in there with you Optimus, I would have finished that oversized tin plated wacko in no time flat!"
Prime chuckled at Ironhide's comments, "I don't doubt it for a second Ironhide, but we needed you and Ratchet to stay behind and help the humans. Speaking of which...how are they Ratchet?"
The med-bot shakes his head and folds his arms together, "I'm not a human doctor Optimus, but...they're in bad shape. Telatran One downloaded all the files on their anatomy and treatment into my memory banks, but I'll admit that I'm not the skilled surgeon to do the operation. I think I should help them carry the wounded back to their military base, its bout as good as I can do to help any of them right now."
Prime nods, "Agreed, you help the humans as much as you can Ratchet, we'll call you if the situation requires you."
The medical robot transforms into his Ambulance form and drives over to the area loading up the wounded soldiers, the General looks over at Spike, Carly and Sparkplug and walks over to them. He stands there proudly and looks at each one of them.
"Now then...what are we going to do with the three of you? Spike and Sparkplug...you're charged with interference and government conspiracy. And Carly...I'm sure a good long questioning at the base will make you see the light."
"Oh come on General.” Carly says rolling her eyes, "This is not the time to act all anal...you do realize that this was a major public fiasco? I'm sure the media has seen the explosions and heard about your mass movement of troops. They're probably already on their way or even taking pictures of us right now."
The General grinds his teeth as he chews on the fact that the young woman was absolutely right, he sighs for a moment and lowers his head.
"What do you think Mr. Drakemore? Mr. Drakemore?"
As the military man whips his head around to look at the man, he notices Drakemore isn't even standing near by, but is sitting on a helicopter preparing to lift off. The General's eyes grow large with anger as he yells out to the agent to come over to him. But the dark eyes of the agent's sunglasses give no hint that he's even paying attention to the General anymore. As the old commander runs over to stop them from taking off, the helicopter rises off the ground and begins to head off into the desert-mountainous horizon. Standing there in the flying dust and backwash from the chopper, the General sourly stares at the massive helicopters leaving him behind to deal with everything. Sparkplug watches the military commander and pities him.
"I think General...you've been fired."
Optimus Prime doesn't pay attention to any of the men, nor of Drakemore's helicopters flying off yonder. Instead he talks to the rest of his Autobot brethren standing by, feeling ashamed and cheated of a victory. As he approaches them all, the men line up in order and salute him, he is still their commander and chief, after serving with him as leader for so long...now is not the time to question his motives. Prime looks at all of them and gives them a speech of encouragement.
"Autobots...Megatron handed us a dirty tactic, it's just the typical spineless attempt I've come to expect from his sort. What we did...had to be done, unlike the Decepticons, we respect life in all forms and all sizes. He has those poor humans at his mercy for now, but we will not let him use them as bartering chips for his own goals. He'll have time to build his ship...so we'll let him. We promised we wouldn't go near the area he's in... And we won't, but he needs to get energy and that's where we'll strike him. Retreating back to The Ark will be a hard thing to do for so many of you, but to create the false illusion that we're doing as he wanted will make it easier to target his men as they come out."
Optimus paces back and forth as the men all stare at him walking past, so too do the human troops trying to gather they're supplies and boarding their vehicles. His words ring true to each of them as the all listen, as the General stood there with his head hung low, he too listened to the stirring words Prime was giving out.
"We'll not let those poor humans be left to die at the hands of Megatron, we'll not stand idlely by while he tries to build a ship to return to Cybertron, and we will certainly not let him take this planet's energy to win the war!” Prime continues to bark out at them, "Autobots...Brothers...My dearest friends. I feel your frustrations about all this, I only ask you to believe I'm doing this for the right reasons and that you'll continue to have faith in my leadership. If anyone feels otherwise, or has any comment to make...I'm listening."
A hush falls among the Autobot soldiers; they all turn to glance at one another to see if anyone will speak out, sure enough, Ironhide steps forward and raises his hand. Optimus Prime's eyes dim slightly, but knowing that he'd be open to any suggestion at all, he gives a gentle nod to his old southerly sounding friend.
"I just wanna say this...We all had our doubts about you from the very beginning Optimus. When you took over as leader during the war, we all felt our doom was surely coming...but you managed to keep us all busy and fight back with all our hearts. When the impossible situations sprang up...you made us beat it back down into submission. You are without a doubt the finest leader any of us have seen in a long, long time. And ah...even though we get into now and then...I still think you’re the man for the job. I guess what I'm saying is that...well...just give us the command and we'll follow you anywhere. Sir!"
The Autobot leader's eyes beamed with joy at Ironhide's flattery, even more so when the robotic soldiers all saluted him again and smiled. The General raised his head and felt rather humbled by the Autobot's loyalty to their leader; it was strange to hear such honor among non-terrestrial beings and even stranger that he lacked to give it to his own kind. These soldiers would fight the minute he'd ask and even die for him if necessary, the General was now starting to feel very ashamed of his own behavior. Human life is more important then the wonders of technology, he was saving America for all the wrong reasons and serving the wrong people who have their own agendas. Looking up at Optimus Prime made him remember what freedom, liberty and justice for all truly meant all over again. It only took a massive red transforming robot to make him believe that goodness still exists in hearts of those who seek peace no matter the cost.
"I thank you my friends...” Prime says cheerfully, "Now lets go back to the base and figure out a way to save the humans...stop the Decepticons and go home to free our own world again!"
The General finishes listening to the Autobot leader and walks over to his awaiting Hummer, he sits in the passenger side and driver beside him looks over, "General, we've been ordered by the President to return back to base and await further instructions."
The old military commander rubbed the gold stars on his left shoulder and sighed as he thought about things, "How many more stars will it take to wash my sins clean? How many more mistakes will happen, as my men die a hopeless battle? My God, where is my humanity? Where are my morals? These robots come and they're more human than I..."
The driver sits there confused, "Uhm...Sir? Are you ok?"
"No. I'm not ok, neither is this whole damn war we're starting.” The General stops rubbing his gold metals and straightens up, "Screw the damn President! Follow those Autobots back to their ship..."
The driver stares at him with great concern, but the military commander just looks back at him with conviction, "Well, just don't sit there looking at me like I've lost my marbles...I gave you a direct order Sergeant!!"
The man turned back to his steering wheel and started the car; nervously he smiled and gave him a loud answer, "Sir, Yes Sir!"
Looking out the side window, the General could see Optimus Prime facing away from his robot warriors and giving them one last order as they head out.
"Autobots, Transform and Rollout!"
The large red and blue robot converted back into his truck cab mode, the large back trailer popping out of its hidden pocket of space-time and reconnecting to him. The other Autobots all transform back into their vehicle modes and follow right behind the leader as he quickly pulls out back towards the main road. Together they all leave, Autobots and humans, as they make their way back to the ship embedded in the mountainside. The large convoy of trucks, cars, and many other military vehicles produces large dirt clouds that signal to the Decepticons across the terrain that Prime has kept his word. Megatron looks at the fleeing group and chuckles to himself.
"So predictable Prime. You truly are weak when it comes to winning a war."
"So Megatron...what are we really going to do with these creatures?” Starscream asks standing behind him.
Megaton turns around, "As we agreed Starscream. No harm will come to these humans, that's the promise I made to Optimus Prime."
The air commander looks confused at the Decepticon leader as he walks by, "What? You truly are going to keep your word mighty leader?"
"That’s right Starscream, I intend to keep these humans as long as I can. It will give us the needed protection of this area until our ship is fully built and fueled. Optimus Prime won't rush in to harm them and the human military will not make such a foolish attempt again."
Starscream follows the leader as he walks over to the group of humans who now have been collected and placed together as Rumble, Frenzy and Skywarp keep their weapons pointed at them. Megatron stops to look down at the prisoners and gives a simple smirk as he gazes at their fearful faces.
"Such heroics would threaten these poor dumb creatures...might even make us a bit trigger happy. So if they don't keep back and hold up their part of the bargain...we'll have our selves a few targets to shoot."
The evil leader laughs as the mention causes the people below to shiver, Starscream begins to laugh with the leader, as do all the other Decepticons. Like a group of huge metallic bullies, they taunt the humans with their laughter and poke at them with the ends of their guns. Soundwave walks over to Megatron as they all continue to enjoy the moment, the only Decepticon not laughing, as he is too busy with other things on his mind.
"Megatron! The new ship blueprints are ready...” the robot says in his wavering monotone electronic voice.
The leader brings his laughter to a slow end and nods to his loyal officer, "Very good Soundwave. Now we must look for a source of energy to fill our hunger and rebuild Cybertron."
Soundwave instantly projects a holographic screen in front of them, slightly see through on the whole, but readable to anyone viewing it on either side. On the holo-screen are images of various human made hydro plants, nuclear weapons, oil refineries and natural energy producing resources. As they all scroll along, Soundwave talks about the various places to visit.
"There are numerous facilities and natural resources for us to collect the energon from. There are several nuclear power plants near by and a few oil fields, there is even a large human constructed dam near by."
Megatron almost drools at the many places they could plunder; this was a world rich in energy and just where he needs to be in order to stockpile energon. He looks at the images with a greedy face, wrenching his hands as if he's hit the jackpot and doesn't know where to begin.
"Where is this dam? It looks rather large...a few modifications and some extra water pressure would produce a sizable quantity of energon don't you think? "
The blue robot looks down and points to the image as it pops up full screen, "Sherman Dam is capable of producing the required energy output...if we can bring the generators to full capacity it should be able to fill one energon cube every one point two Deco-quads of energy."
Megatron places his hands on his hips, "Excellent...this world is too good to be true. Such energy, such raw untapped energy! When we get back to Cybertron, I will send a legion of ships here to restock all of this and suck the very life out of this planet until it runs dry!"
••••••••••••••••
Wheeljack and Huffer continue to work on Telatran One back inside the Autobot ship called The Ark, finally they finish up and prepare to restart the computer again. As Huffer rises up from the console he just finished repaired, he looks over to the far side of the room and sees Wheeljack closing his massive console panel as well.
"Well that’s it...Telatran One is back online and running smooth again.” Wheeljack proclaims, "Now...time to wake this computer up and figure out where everyone is."
Huffer rubs his forehead and sighs relief, "Thank goodness, I was about to go haywire from all this hard work. I hope you fixed everything correctly Wheeljack."
Wheeljack laughs, "We'll soon find out lil' buddy. Hit the restart will ya?"
Huffer walks over to the main controls and presses the large square button Wheeljack was talking about. As soon as he hit it, a massive power surge within the computer itself forcefully ejected Ravage who was still lodged inside. The minidisk spy whimpered from the blast Telatran One gave to the Decepticon and quickly transformed beyond Huffer's head as he went flying out. Huffer was caught off guard by the Decepticon cat's appearance, he stood there speechless as Ravage leaped across and began running out the bridge door behind him. Wheeljack saw everything happen and quickly shouted to Huffer.
"Ravage!! Huffer! Just don't stand there like a lummox! Go after him!!"
Huffer snapped out of his stupor transforming quickly into his orange truck cab mode, he was smaller in design to Optimus Prime and had a few minor differences in the way his truck form looked. Still he one advantage to being smaller, he was faster and without a back trailer lumbering behind him, he could easily catch up to the fleeing Decepticon. Still Ravage sprinted fast down the long ship corridor and looked back every now and then to see how far he was being followed. The flashing red lights and the blaring alarms filled the ship in every corridor and room, booming in the background was Telatran One's voice alerting all throughout the vessel there was a Decepticon intruder. As Ravage went rushing by, a door opened on the sidewall and out stepped Trailbreaker, the bulky looking black and chromed robot caught a quick glimpse of the intruder and looked confused as to what was happening. Huffer saw Trailbreaker standing there and shouted out to him as he was trying to stop the fast black cat.
"Don't let him get away Trailbreaker! It's Ravage!!"
The large black Autobot didn't even have to think twice, he ran down the hall and saw the Decepticon almost reaching the open bay door leading outside.
"Oh no you don't...time to block your only way out!"
The minute he finished saying that, his shoulder mounted chrome-looking device shot out a massive energy pulse that streaked over to the large doorway and covered the whole thing in it's electric plasma green glow. Ravage hit this strange pulsating energy and bounced off of it like a rubber wall. Trailbreaker laughed at the bouncing kitty as he watched it repeatedly trying to break through it, his running became a slow walk as he approached the frantic Decepticon. Huffer finally reached them both and quickly transformed into his robot mode again, he took out his gun from a panel opening behind his back and pointed it at the intruder.
"Don't you move a muscle Ravage...I got my blaster aimed straight at your head! Just give me a reason to blow it clean off!"
The black cat stopped in its tracks and stood there growling at the two Autobots, Trailbreaker used his arm cannon to launch a energon cage and trap the Decepticon in its place. Most transformers have arms that are built in cannons, often they come in handy when there's no hand weapon to be found, instead of having a regular arm and hand they have a large blaster arm that channels from their power directly. Trailbreaker manages to use it for mainly making force fields or a last resort when no other weapon is available; a master at creating them, force fields are his specialty. Now that Ravage is caught, his energy force field surrounding the large main door dissipates as the time collapses of its use.
"There we go...one black cat, never to trouble our path again. Good thing I stayed behind."
Huffer looks up at him confused, "Hey ya...where the heck were you? I could have joined the others if I'd known you were still here. Weren't you in the line up? "
"Nope...I asked Optimus to let me finish making repairs to the sick bay incase they need it. I'm more wondering where Mirage is...haven't seen him for a long time either."
Huffer lets out a snicker, "I'll bet he's looking for a new place to live. I don't trust that guy...on one hand he wants to stop Megatron and the Decepticons, but on the other, he doesn't want to fight anymore. Sounds like a pure coward if you ask me."
"Yeah...” the big bulky black robot sighs, "Although he's a good guy, saved my hide a few times during the war...just not much of a fighter I think. I've heard him ramble on about the good ol' days of Cybertron, when he was just a courier racing back and forth between cities. Remember Huffer, not all of us were born warriors you know. Just give the guy a break and he'll prove his worth to the team..."
"Whatever Trailbreaker.... I’ll believe it when I see it."
Suddenly Optimus Prime's voice is heard over their built in radio receivers, they all hold up their hands to their heads to activate their transceivers.
"Optimus to base! Optimus to base! "
Trailbreaker responds to the leader by talking back with his built in microphone inside his head, "Base to Prime...this is Trailbreaker, we're receiving you Optimus Prime, over."
"Trailbreaker...prepare that sick bay and get ready for human casualties. Tell Huffer and Wheeljack to finish fixing Telatran One as soon as possible!"
Huffer opens a comm-link to the Autobot leader, "This is Huffer Prime.... we’ve finished repairs and T-1 is A-OK again!"
"Good work Huffer, as soon as we arrive I want all personnel to assemble in the bridge. It's time we figure out what our next plan of attack will be."
Huffer grins and joyfully confirms back to him, "You got it Prime! Huffer out!"
Outside, down in the valley heading towards the mountain where the ship lays, Optimus Prime and the other race up the road heading for it. The human army follows closely behind as they bring their wounded back to Autobot headquarters, some of the trucks pull off and stay down near the campsite already set up from last time. The larger trucks head up with the Autobots as they all begin to move into the ship. As Prowl and Cliffjumper pass in their car forms, Trailbreaker uses his force field cannon arm to move the trapped Decepticon aside. Still not able to get out of it, Ravage continually claws at the energon mesh cage in a hopeless attempt to break free. As the others continue to head deeper into the ship, Cliffjumper and Prowl transform and walk over to Trailbreaker and his catch of the day.
"Well, well, well...", Cliffjumper states, "Looks like our main man here bagged himself a kitty cat."
Prowl laughs, "Yeah...funny I don't remember seeing you out there fighting them though?"
Trailbreaker scoffs at Prowls stupid remark, "That’s funny, I could have sworn you were supposed to be the security chief of this place. This spy got in here without us knowing about it."
Prowl seemed taken back by that remark, he knew that if Kup had seen that happen he'd be in trouble big time. Indeed he did fail on carefully searching Bumblebee and the others when they came back, something that he's not proud of and something that Kup would look down on him about. Without even saying anymore, Prowl turned around and walked down the corridor to the bridge like a grumpy kid. It was a blow to his professional ego, a small spy getting past all of them was a major security breach, in his mind, he could hear Kup scolding him out for such a lackluster performance. It was time for him to get serious about improving security around the ship, it was time for him to prove that he could be as good as Kup ever was and it was time for him to get to work.