Chapter 3 - New Recruits

Earth

Gundog and Blue Falcon sat on the edge of the repair table in Flashpoint's medical bay. Both Autobots looked around intently, feeling slightly calmer and more at ease. Flashpoint had done his best to repair the damage to them that had been caused by a violent and unexpected attack on their base by the retreating Decepticons in the east. The door slid open and Raid walked in, his blue lenses scanning the room sightlessly. Galaxy followed closely behind, eyeing the new-commers up.
''My apologies, I had some issues with the secondary computer system, but I assure you, that Flashpoint has forwarded me your story and that you are welcome to stay aboard until we get back to Cybertron.'' Raid said politely.
Gundog leaned forward a bit, hands grasping the edge of the table as he looked at Raid's lenses. Blue Falcon grunted something and gave a slight nudge, gaining a dirty look from his comrade.
''Is there a problem?'' Galaxy rumbled, keeping her optics firmly on Gundog.
''No.'' He replied simply.
''Good. Then we'll all get along nicely.'' She grinned. It wasn't a particularily pleasent grin, either.
''I'm sorry you two, but you must understand something; Raid has lost his sight, so he has to use other means of seeing, which is either via us, or the ship's sensors.'' Flashpoint said rather pointedly.
''Ah...'' Blue Falcon murmered, ''If you don't mind me asking, how...?''

''Decepticons.'' Was Raid's simple reply.
Blue Falcon muttered something to himself, gaining an interested look from Gundog.
''Do you know if there could be any more survivors of the bombing?'' Raid asked, staring at the space between the pair.
Gundog gave a shrug and Blue Falcon just said ''No idea. If there was, I'm pretty sure we'd have heard from them by now.''
''Well, we got a couple more days before we can even consider leaving, so until then, keep your sensors high, kay?'' Galaxy instructed.
''Fine.'' Gundog said, earning himself a slight glare from the large female Autobot.
''Oh, I intend to.'' Blue Falcon replied.
''I'm confident you're feeling up to some work, so if you'll follow me, I'll assign you to your tasks and introduce you to the others.'' Raid said and turned, gesturing vaguely in the doorway to the corridoor that lay dimly lit beyond.



''How many more loads do we have?'' Roadtrain groaned as the weight on his back grew more and more.
Hookshot paused in his movements, a piece of the outer support pillar for the Space Bridge tucked firmly under one arm and cast a quick, thoughtful glance over his shoulder at the space the Bridge was now slowly but surely vacating.
''After this, I'd say about... Two more loads.'' The Constructicon replied then carefully placed the piece atop the others.
''How does the boss expect this to work when we put it back together?'' Steele commented abruptly from the rear of the chamber as he crouched before a junction box that led to the Space Bridge.
''I think he made contact with home before we started dismantling everythin' and requested a new techie.'' Hookshot replied thoughtfully.
''I hope it ain't another damn flyer.'' Roadtrain grumbled sourly.
''Knowing Krusher, he'll have wings or rotar blades.'' Steele grumbled, mirroring Roadtrain's outlook on all things flight capable.


Somewhere In Space...

A large battle cruiser, scarred, dented and heavily armed and armoured, floated almost aimlessly through an un-inhabited solar system. The sun caught the side of the massive black, oddly structured ship and the odd, almost tribal markings that adorned the vessel's hull seemed to glow a faint blue. A set of three powerful engines blasted out three identical streams of blue white into the darkness as it left the orbit of an equally impressive in size planet. Aboard the ship, its crew wandered calmly from area to area, the tails on their dark coloured uniform coats seemingly floating behind them as they moved through the maze of corridoors, flowing like liquid. Sat in a launch bay that was situated at the fore of the ship, a sleek, alien craft sat, waiting patiently. It was quite content with watching the organics go about their business, checking the much smaller, crueller looking ships that surrounded it. A small, long fingered hand touched upon one of the alien crafts forward swept wings, running it across the smooth, white surface.
''We are almost at your requested destination, Jetstream. Are there any more preparations you require to be done before launch?'' Asked the deep purple skinned creature, his mass of tentacle like dreads pulled back and tied with what appeared to be a metallic form of string.
''No. All my preparations are complete. Thankyou.'' Came the reply.
''Very well. We will arrive at the launch area in the next four hours.''
The alien pivoted on his heel and sauntered away, a flimsy electronic pad in his hand.
Jetstream sighed inwardly. It was almost time to meet the new boss, in the metal and not just on-screen. To say that what Jetstream felt was nervouseness, would be a slight understatment.



Cybertron

Solar glared across the barren wasteland, his optics fixed firmly on the slowly fading smoke that signified the location of his old village. A large hand landed on his shoulder. He didn't look. He knew who it was and why he had come.
''It is time to give up, Solar.'' Contrail said solemnly. ''If she is still, by some miracle, alive, then she will find us. If not, then...''
''Then what's left of her will be used as scrap and replacement parts by the Decepticons.'' Solar grumbled, putting sound to the words that lingered in the air, unsaid by his elder.
Contrail remained silent, struggling to find further words. It wasn't easy. He eventually gave up and said instead;
''Wherry wants to see us. He's calling a group meeting.''
''When?'' Solar asked after a moment.
''In a few minutes in the foundation, so don't be late.'' Contrail rumbled and wandered off towards where the meet would be held.
Solar remained in place, optics fixed on the horizon. He wondered about his sister, and what happened to her. Did she escape, or was she burned, melted down into scrap by the Energon fueled flames? Something didn't feel right. Surely, if she had died, he'd have felt it, right...? He mentally shook himself and turned away, putting the smoke to his back and walked off towards the foundation.


The foundation was a decent sized, circular room, big enough to hold fifteen bots. Solar counted seventeen, including himself, squeezed into the underground room. The roof was domed and a ring of lights ran around the upper most edges. Stood at the back was an old man, his armour flimsy, weapons all but useless. With each movement, a joint would creak out of protest. Stood beside Wherry was Contrail, the bulky figure scanning the crowd with vivid blue lenses. Solar looked over at him, and the old warrior seemed to relax a touch.
''Do you all know why we are here?'' Wherry said abruptly.
There was a chorus of murmers.
''Good. Then there is no doubt that you all know that we cannot risk going back and re-building. Such an endevour would be suicide, and we have already lost so much.'' Wherry continued. ''We have decided to go north, to search for a new place to reside.''
There was another chorus of murmering, this time, with a tone of slight disagreement.
''If you have any better ideas, then we will be interested to hear them.'' Contrail put in, ending the growing din.
The room went silent. It seemed everyone was fresh out of ideas or too tired to bother argueing.

''Very well. We will leave first thing.'' Wherry finished and turned and climbed down from his little makeshift podium.
''Great...'' Solar muttered. ''On the run. Again.''
As he turned to leave, a large hand landed on his shoulder again. Contrail had fought his way through the crowd, leaving Wherry in the capable hands of his comrades.
''It is for the best.''
''No it's not. We can't just turn tailpipe and run every time we see a Decepticon. It's not right. We're not weak.'' He growled.
''In our current state, we are. We are not trained enough to take on a group of Decepticon soldiers. They would reduce us to scrap.'' Contrail replied gruffly.
''Then train us! You have the combat experience!'' Solar almost wailed. ''If you trained us, then we could make a stand!''
''I tried training you once. You weren't interested. You and your sister were more interested in messing around than learning how to survive an attack.'' Contrail snapped, then cut himself short when Solar wheeled on him.
''That was years ago!'' He snapped angrily. ''Things have changed now, and I want to fight!''
Contrail straightened up, bringing himself to his full height. Solar had to crane his neck back just to keep optical contact with his elder.
''Even though I know what you intend to do with such training, I really have very little choice in the matter, do I?''
''No. Not unless you want to live out the rest of your days with me annoy the bolts out of you.''
Contrail sighed heavily.
''Your combat training starts in fifteen minutes. I expect to see you back here then.'' He rumbled and walked off to find Wherry again.



Flare looked up at Burnout. The massive Decepticon troop carrier returned her gaze evenly. Crash and Propshaft had explained the Decepticon side of things, and now the young Cybertronian was weighing her options. With the village lost to the attack and her brother long gone, she really had nowhere to go. She kept playing that particular part of the security vid over and over in her head. The sight of her brother, her best friend, her identical twin, turning tail and fleeing, leaving her to a messy demise turning her once cheerful, optimistic outlook on life sour. She clenched her fists and looked at the scarred horizon. If she wished to leave, Burnout was ready to take her back to the village. If she wished to stay, then she could. A long moments thought. Then the decision came so easily, it startled her. She looked back up at Burnout again.
''I wish to join the Decepticon ranks.'' She stated simply.
''Then I will take you to see Crash.'' Burnout rumbled in reply and escorted her back towards the main bulk of the base, the smattering of Decepticon soldiers that were milling about the yard pausing in their duties to have a look at the small Cybertronian as she was lead by the bulk of a much feared heavy.


Earth

As the sun settled once more over the town, a few bubbles broke the surface of the lake, disturbing the calm waters. The bubbles grew in magnitude, fast becomming a torrent, sending waves splashing and sucking at the tiny beaches that surrounded the body of water. There was an eruption, then the water broke, a sleek nose of a large craft stabbing through the surface. The low rumbling continued as the lake seemingly gave birth to a massive shape, thick jets of fire at its rear, sending it skyward at an impossible rate. The water was forced from its hole, flooding the surrounding area as the massive Autobot ship powered toward the darkening sky, piercing the clouds, sending the grey vapours sweeping and curling in the alien vessel's wake. If any of the Humans in town and the surrounding areas managed to ignore the sudden din, there was soemthing seriously wrong. Even the deaf wandered over to their windows to have a look. The vibrations of the launch had shook the foundations of the town deeply. Alarms were going off, dogs were barking and howling and people were shouting. But there was no need to worry about it anymore. All sentient mechanical life forms were leaving the dying planet. A little further away, the huge bulk of the Epitaph was also leaving Earth's atmosphere. Both ships shuddered as they pierced through into space. Raid scanned the entire ship. Everything was still functioning at full efficiency.
''Keep a tabs on the Epitaph's where-abouts.'' He said, an order that didn't need to be voiced out loud. It was something they'd been doing sicne they left Cybertron all those years ago.
The new arrivals, Gundog and Blue Falcon, were doing well, although Blue Falcon seemed to get along well with the others better than Gundog, who, Raid had decided, seemed to be slow to trust new comrades.



''The Autobot ship, Solstice, is following. Again.'' Roadtrain said, casually inspecting the instruments at his station.
''Keep engines on full, I don't want them interfering when we go to meet our new comrade.'' Krusher ordered.
''Engines are on full, we should be leaving the system in about four hours.'' Steele said.
Hookshot turned from his station and shot Krusher a curious look.
''Who is this new recruit, anyway?'' He asked slowly.
Krusher just glared.
''An old contact, and a reliable soldier, that's all.'' He replied smoothly. ''Now stop asking, and start doing, before I throw you out of the air lock.''
''Yes boss.'' The crane grumbled and turned back to his station.

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