Transformers: Alone and Unafraid

[Lys]

Blastcap sighed internally, but her features remained blank. It had been too long since she had last worked with so many Cybertronians. Usually if she told someone to stay out of her business, then they stayed out of her business. Reasonable and smart beings the galaxy over would go out of their way to avoid annoying one of Primus' children, for doing otherwise often did awful things to one's life expectancy. Even the unreasonable and stupid frequently found reason and wits after a proper display of power. Governments were not so easily cowed of course, but at least for her employers Blastcap had the ability to instil a particular dread. The very threat of raising her fees was enough to make thousands of accountants cry out in terror and be suddenly silenced.

But not here, and not now. In Coldrock any Cybertronian was a containable threat, and an easily containable one in its Headquarters. Threats of force carried no weight, even if they did Blastcap had no desire to engage in them. She had also blown the money card when the League hired her services. The offer was generous, but they had been expecting the grizzled mercenary to ask for twice as much. The League would have happily paid it, they would have happily paid three times, she was worth it. Instead Blastcap took the first offer without comment, and it aroused such suspicions that for several months she was only given make work away from anything important.

"I have already told you what happened, succinctly," she told Longshot. "Do you wish more detail? I'm afraid that the matter is... sensitive. I need your assurance that it will stay between you, me, and Breakout."

[rhoenix]

Shimmer gave the Decepticon flyer a sly grin. "You may have seen someone who looked similar, yes," she admitted with a chuckle. "Someone with a Decepticon brand, who was simply a courier running errands. Not a Autobot, of course. You'd have blasted an Autobot."

The false innocence in her teasing matched the grin on her faceplate. "For Decepticons, you were really easily fooled at times."

At this, the eyebrow ridge over Farshot's golden right eye raised in question as he turned to glance at Shimmer. "You mean nobody bothered to check?"

With that, his head turned slightly more, so he could look at Shunt, the eyebrow ridge over his right eye raised slightly more. "That's dangerous."

[Agent Fisher]

Cutter looked to Shunt. "I was created once the war started, a small production run, so to speak." He said. "I picked this current Alt after leaving Cybertron." He said.

The autobot flier listened to Shimmer and chuckled. "Yep, they are." He said, moving over to the server and getting the first round of drinks, bringing them back and passing them out.

[General Havoc]

Blastcap was not eager to speak up regarding what had happened. Cavalier, on the other hand, was having trouble shutting up. And what a tale he had to tell.

Relentlessly, he told the story of Axis station, how he had chased someone there, only to be caught up in a massive assault. He described, in clinical detail, the sight of dozens, hundreds of organics being torn apart by everything from shrapnel to explosive decompression. He described ruined corridors blasted open with a tank round or simply ripped open with a sword or bare hands to get a handful of organics and mechanicals to the escape pods. He described re-entry in terms too detailed to be invented, the slagged armor, the ablating bits of station, the impact that scrambled everything so badly that he couldn't recall what had happened. And just when Counterstrike thought it was over, Cavalier got into the real bad stuff, describing waking up in an exterminated crater in the midst of what had once been a city of twelve million. Describing nuclear winter firsthand, of crossing fire-scorched continents in a half-broken state, finding entire tribes of organics dead of starvation or internecine warfare, until he came across an organic child so out of his head with hunger that he had attacked Cavalier the War Machine with a lead pipe to prevent him from stealing a dead dog.

When finally he had completed his tale of horror, Cavalier stared Counterstrike in the optics, his own optics raging like nuclear fires.

"That bot was complicit in the whole Primus-damned thing. She sabotaged the defense grid on the space station that let the attack take place. She showed me footage recorded on her own damned transcribers that couldn't have come from anywhere else. She up and slagging admitted it!"

Cavalier slammed his fist down on the conference table hard enough to dent it.

"I tracked down every single pirate scum responsible for that assault. Tracked them all down and killed them all. She says she had some sort of excuse for why she was there, that it wasn't what I thought it was. Deathstrike started the fireworks before she got the chance to explain herself. So yeah, I pulled my sword and called for answers. I don't get any soon, and I'm liable to do it again."

[Dark Silver]

Grindstone nodded, no, he didn't normally socialize...but he his fuel reserves were down. He could use a recharge.

"I just returned from a firing range...I could use a bit of Energon. Lead the way Shellshock."

[SirNitram]

"Do I look counterintel? For better or worse, I was a single function 'con. Plus, how much intel was I gonna have? Oh, I go up in this many cycles.. That's all."

[LadyTevar]

"Don't worry, Shunt... if I had wanted information all I'd have to do was go flirt with Starscream, and he'd have bragged more than I'd have ever wanted to hear," Shimmer replied cheerfully, before raising her glass to Cutter. "Since we didn't get to do this at the time, and it's long overdue -- 'Yes, we Survived!'"

The battle that Shimmer toasted to had been well over a vorn ago, on a planet that she just did recall the name. What mattered was she and Cutter had promised to have a drink if they survived.

[frigidmagi]

"I have already told you what happened, succinctly," she told Longshot. "Do you wish more detail? I'm afraid that the matter is... sensitive. I need your assurance that it will stay between you, me, and Breakout."

"I'll have to call the commander and he'll make the call." Longshoot replied.

"That bot was complicit in the whole Primus-damned thing. She sabotaged the defense grid on the space station that let the attack take place. She showed me footage recorded on her own damned transcribers that couldn't have come from anywhere else. She up and slagging admitted it!"

Cavalier slammed his fist down on the conference table hard enough to dent it.

"I tracked down every single pirate scum responsible for that assault. Tracked them all down and killed them all. She says she had some sort of excuse for why she was there, that it wasn't what I thought it was. Deathstrike started the fireworks before she got the chance to explain herself. So yeah, I pulled my sword and called for answers. I don't get any soon, and I'm liable to do it again."

Counterstrike without a word erased the last part of that statement from the record. What wasn't recorded couldn't hurt him or Cavalier.

"Calm down mech. I am trying to help you, but threats won't get you anywhere. You know that. Now you want answers? We'll get them. Legally. If Blastcap did do it, she'll go away for a long time. But you're not judge, jury and executioner, not here and not now." Counterstrike said.

[Lys]

"I'll have to call the commander and he'll make the call." Longshoot replied.

"Then call him. I request that all transcripts relating to this incident be restricted to Breakout, Counterstrike, and yourself. Most importantly the particulars of the interviews with Deathstrike, Cavalier, and myself. If the commander finds cause to unseal them later then so be it, he has the right, but for now I want his assurance. That is all I ask."

[SirNitram]

"The Red Retard always was an open leak for intel. Still, he's gone, and I'm glad. For all he's an idiot and his backup singers are useless, I'd rather face fewer opponents in the sky when we hit Straxus." Shunt mused.

[frigidmagi]

Breakout was debriefing Deathstrike on the incident when Longshot's call came in. Breakout listened and replied.

"I'll be there shortly." He turned to Deathstrike. This should be good he thought.

"There may be a resolution to the situation. I would request you wait here. Do you require anything?" He asked.

[Cynical Cat]

"No."

[frigidmagi]

Breakout nodded and left. He turned to Metalhead who had been awaiting him outside the office.

"Inform Counterstrike I am coming to collect Cavalier. After that, keep an eye on Deathstrike and make sure he doesn't want for anything while waiting." Breakout ordered. Life had been easier in the field. He strode off towards the office holding Cavalier.

[rhoenix]

"The Red Retard always was an open leak for intel. Still, he's gone, and I'm glad. For all he's an idiot and his backup singers are useless, I'd rather face fewer opponents in the sky when we hit Straxus." Shunt mused.

Farshot chuckled at this. "I've never met Starscream, but Megatron did make his thoughts on him fairly clear," he said wryly before taking a sip of his energon.

In all the journals Megatron had uploaded into Farshot's long-term storage, all the entries concerning Starscream were at best extremely unflattering to the former Air Commander. Farshot's personal favorite was "It galls me that Starscream - a stupid, arrogant, slag-headed, incompetent fool - would be one of the best choices for the Decepticon air forces. I continually search for a viable replacement that does not make me wish to atomize him on sight."

[LadyTevar]

"Stravous has enough fliers to make things difficult," Shimmer replied airily. Shunt was not on the mission, so she was keeping conversation to generalities. "I have to wonder what Megatron would think of the Decepticon Empire."

[SirNitram]

"Nothing good." Shunt said simply. "I was built by Megs. He didn't use the ridiculous systems Strav does. Caste systems, corruption, slave pits.. It more resembles the old Autobot Council's rule, according to my datafiles."

[rhoenix]

"Nothing good." Shunt said simply. "I was built by Megs. He didn't use the ridiculous systems Strav does. Caste systems, corruption, slave pits.. It more resembles the old Autobot Council's rule, according to my datafiles."

Hearing this caused Farshot to smirk, and shake his head. "It may be what's in your datafiles Shunt, but I've seen too many discrepancies between the universe and my datafiles to call those memories a reliable source," he said with wry amusement. "You'll want to confirm those memories with other sources."

[Agent Fisher]

"Since we didn't get to do this at the time, and it's long overdue -- 'Yes, we Survived!'"

Cutter chuckled, clicking his glass to hers. "Told you we would, don't know why you acted like the plan was such a stupid idea." He teased before listening to the other fliers and Shimmer talk.

"And as for Stravous' fliers, I'm not too worried. I may be made for moving mud, but I can handle myself in the air."

[SirNitram]

"Doesn't matter to me, Farshot, save that I don't like Strav, and I'll blow anything he sends my way out of the sky before it realizes my talents." Shunt said simply, taking in energon. He needed it. "Gotta think realistically. Megs is gone. The old Council is gone. I've got a planet full of organics I'm responsible for now. When I'm done here and repaired, I'm going back."

[LadyTevar]

"Now that sounds like a story," Shimmer said, leaning forward to look at Shunt expectantly.

[rhoenix]

"Doesn't matter to me, Farshot, save that I don't like Strav, and I'll blow anything he sends my way out of the sky before it realizes my talents." Shunt said simply, taking in energon. He needed it. "Gotta think realistically. Megs is gone. The old Council is gone. I've got a planet full of organics I'm responsible for now. When I'm done here and repaired, I'm going back."

Farshot nodded seriously at this, a thoughtful expression on his faceplate. "I can understand that," he said in a slightly softer voice. "There were several worlds I was surveying. When this is all over with, I'll be going back to overwatch for them. The organic civilizations on those worlds deserve the chance to grow and flourish without the threat of Stavrous' ambitions."

[SirNitram]

"More threats 'n that, sadly.' Shunt clearly isn't used to drinking energon, but is getting into the swing of it. "Two ex-Autobots.. Well, I'm assuming ex- there.. Decided looting the world would be a real good idea, and didn't count on a Decepticon warrior being their.. Blast, how would I translate it? 'Thunder' and a word which /means/ tiny feathered beast."

[LadyTevar]

Shimmer knew hundreds of words that would fit that, in several languages. "Avian? Raptorian? Wherry?" she suggested. If no one else asked the supposedly rogue Autobots' names, she'd follow up on that later.

[rhoenix]

Hearing Shunt, Farshot's memory was triggered by the last organic race to have seen him. The experience left him troubled enough that he was always careful to stay out of sight of those he observed in the years that passed.

Primitive organics were being herded by a group of other organic soldiers, these wearing high-tech power armor - it wasn't much of a weapons contest compared against spears and rocks. Farshot had decided to intervene on impulse, at hearing one of the frightened primitive organics warn their pursuers that "The thunderbird will watch over us, and you!"

Dropping from high altitude, Farshot descended rapidly to less than a thousand meters above the ground, and lit his engines to full power at exactly the right time - resulting in a deafening, echoing sonic boom that shook the forest around them for miles, and knocked all the organics to the ground.

The higher-tech organics immediately fled, recognizing the shape and readings of a Cybertronian - but the more primitive ones built monuments to the large, featherless bird of storms that had saved them over the next few years.

Farshot still wasn't quite sure what to make of that, but it did give him an answer to Shunt's question. "'Thunderbird', you mean?", he asked Shunt, giving no hint of the memories racing through his mind.

[General Havoc]

Cavalier turned to say something to Counterstrike, stopped, and visibly forced himself to calm down, shutting his optics and clenching and unclenching his hands several times. When he opened his optics again, he was no longer raging, but still clearly unhappy.

"I am judge, jury, and executioner, Counterstrike. That's what I was built to be. It's what you were built to be too, and Breakout, and half the other bots on this station. I've killed Decepticons by the dozen whose names I never knew, whose crimes were unproven if even alleged, all because we were in the middle of a war and that's the way it is. I passed summary judgment on every one of the pirates and killers who did Axis, just like I did to Massacre, just like I did to Smother and Neutralize, and just like I should have done to Division. Breakout was right about that much."

This line of discussion not being conducive to maintaining his calm, Cavalier took another second and forced the fire out of his lasercore.

"You and Breakout and whoever else want to handle this different, that's fine. Before Deathstrike came barraging in, she told me that there was extenuating circumstances." He scoffed. "I don't know what in the pits could possibly extenuate this... but if she's got reasons, I'll hear 'em out."

Cavalier's engine growled from deep within his body.

"But if Breakout wants to make this his show, then I'm gonna be looking to him to make it right if this magic excuse of hers ain't up to par. Because the way I was programmed, Counterstrike, them that murder twelve million organics don't get community service."