Transformers: Steel Reign

[Agent Fisher]

Stryke laughed. "He got here just as you and that 'copter did." He said.

[SirNitram]

"Here's my solution. I bash you both together until things start breaking. Hell, I'll rip the Cogs out." Overload groused at the two Decepticons. "Ugh. This is what Megatron turned the Decepticons into. Bumblers, idiots, and yappers. There used to be honour in being a war-bot. Now it's just deceptive little turncoats and prideful idiots." He leaned down at Swiftshot and Deathstrike. "Keep it up. Please. Because right now, I'm quite willing to be the one that carries out any orders from Jazz on putting you both in long-term CR care. If you don't feel like getting your internals made your externals, get to work. I'll use you both as shields when the Strikers show up."

[Cynical Cat]

"You can't even recognize an infiltrator right in front of you Autobot," said Deathstrike. "The only one who recognizes the danger is the Decepticon despite a claim that's riddled with flaws. You and yours will pay the price." He let the Autobots direct him towards the maintenance bay and the CR chamber that would likely be his death.

"Been a long time Springer. We go back a few million years, don't we?"

[General Havoc]

"I... I guess so..." said Hornet as he calmed down slowly, sighing sadly at the display he had just witnessed. "I wish Optimus was here..."

And then everyone started up again. Hornet wanted to scream. This was too much.

Suddenly Crimson mentioned tracks.... tracks...

"Tracks!"

"My... my video recorder!" exclaimed Hornet. "My video recorder was recording everything from when I was flying around looking for Swiftshot! It... it should show if there were any tracks or not leading to the ruins we found him in... shouldn't it?"

[Charon]

Shellshock snorted at Overload's comment about war-bots. "That's why I turned down that fool Megatron's offer. I knew what his ambition would turn them into a sad reflection of the proud history we'd once had."

As Hornet came to his brilliant deduction Shellshock almost stopped mid-sentence, it was only that his rambling had finished that stopped it from happening.

"Hornet, that's genius. Let me see those recordings." Finally, he'd be able to see what had really happened.

[Dark Silver]

"Keep walking Deathstrike" Springer muttered, before Jazz stopped them.

"We're not going to the CR chambers. Your coming with us to file that report to Prowl....we'll use holomatter to make a duplicate in the chamber..and see what happens."

springer would have blinked at Jazz if he could, but instead, as Jazz lead them away, he wondered...

----


Gridlock and Wideload looked at the little group of Overload, Crimson, Shellshock and Hornet, cleared his vocal actuator, and walked over, "We've been ordered to do construction. Jazz and Springer can handle the other matters. Now...either come work, or I reprimand all of you. End of discussion"

With that, Gridlock and Wideload walked away, and out the door. Work had to be done.

[General Havoc]

"G... genius?!" exclaimed Hornet, "R... Really? Just... just a second." He tried to remember how to work his video recorder's playback option. Wheeljack had explained this to him once but....

He pressed a few buttons on his right wrist with his left hand, and the Gatling laser built into his wrist retracted into his arm, and was replaced with a small digital video projector. Normally, recon bots were equipped with holographic emitters, but Hornet's frame was too small for any such thing to fit.

He pressed a couple more buttons, and then aimed his wing at the wall, as though preparing to shoot it. What emerged instead however was a small video projection of the flight through Hornet's eyes, with additional codes written across the top and bottom of the screen to indicate the date and location of the video. The video played for only half a minute, accelerated as it was, but one thing was abundantly clear.

There were no tracks around Swiftshot whatsoever.

[LadyTevar]

Crimson looked down at Hornet, shocked... then a very large grin spread over her face. "You'd have the best view of the approaches to the building as well, Hornet! Why didn't you mention this before?!"

"GRIDLOCK! Come Look at THIS!" she shouted down the hallway at the Russians.

[SirNitram]

"Good thing he had the recording, Matrix knows my memory engrams are losing resolution by the Vorn." Overload muttered, following Gridlock. Work would get his mind off the mess. Until things exploded, as they always did.

[Cynical Cat]

"You know me well Springer. I'm too direct for this intrigue. I am, however, almost always right. Intelligence and Power in one chassis. You know that to be true. Otherwise you would have killed me long ago. Compile the data. You'll know I'm right." He followed Jazz into the chamber.

[Dark Silver]

"Work now!" the Russian'bot shouted from down the hall, the annoyance apparent in his voice.

His precious timetable was being pushed back by the second....at this rate, the base would never be done.

[General Havoc]

"I er... forgot about it..." admitted Hornet sheepishly. "I... I don't get to go... do recon ever... so I.... I forgot that I had the recorder..."

[Charon]

Shellshock tried to look at the walls. "Hornet, slow down the recording some, and can you focus on those blast points on the walls, I want to look at something." Shellshock's red optics focused intently on the recording. Let gridlock reprimand him.

[SirNitram]

"Let 'em." Overload said to the Russian Autobot. "Sabotage would add months to the timetable. So it can't hurt. Besides, Teenybot can't carry much. You got me, what more do you need?"

[Dark Silver]

Jazz stopped at Deathstrike's CR chamber, and pulled out a small, palmsized holomatter emmiter with a security tracker. He set it in the pod, had it scan Deathstrike, and shortly thereafter, a perfect image of Deathstrike, in Stasis Lock, appeared.

"Now, we baited the trap with cybercheese, let's see if the uranium-rats take it."

Jazz motioned Deathstrike and Springer to follow him, Deathstrike placed inbetween the two Autobots, headed for the back way to the communications bay.

[Cynical Cat]

"You had me worried," said Deathstrike. "I remembered you being clever, but I was worried back there."

[General Havoc]

"I'll... I'll try..." said Hornet. It took several moments for Hornet to figure out how to rewind the footage, but he soon managed to play it back slowly, waiting to pause whenever Shellshock asked.

[Dark Silver]

"Is need more hands comrade, is much work to be done, even with you, Wideload and I neyt finish on time for Prime."

Gridlock seemed to mutter to himself, till they got outside, then the two construction bot's transformer, "Is get in Wideload comrade, we ride to construction zone."

------- -------


"Don't let that frazzle ya 'Strike, gotta lay the trap if you want to get the turkeys." Jazz said. Once they were in the comms room, Springer went to activate the security display, while Jazz opened a comm channel to Prowl - relaying the report.

[Charon]

Shellshock asked Hornet to stop numerous times, each time trying to burn it into his memory as best he could, occasionally he asked the teenybot to rewind again, and pause again, and rewind again, before he got to the end of the tape.

The old war-bot was kneeling silently for a long time, considering the data. Mumbling to himself.

[LadyTevar]

"Stryke's with him now..." Crimson said softly, looking over the footage that proved what they'd only suspected. "We should warn him..."

[Cynical Cat]

"Well, there's a reason Megatron had me as a strike leader and had Soundwave and Shockwave handle the sneakier stuff," said Deathstrike.

[SirNitram]

Overload transformed, his rail-wheels biting into the permafrost and starting to move. He accelerated slowly, but that meant little. He was able to keep up the acceleration. "Let's just get this done. Though right now, I wish you had a mountain that needed flattening. I want to ram something."

[Agent Fisher]

Stryke pointed Swiftshot over to some building materials. "Get started, buddy."

[Charon]

Shellshock shook his head. "No, we need to let this play out a little longer. If we warn him now, and we're wrong, well then we're in trouble. And if we're right, Swiftstrike will know he's been made and take as many Autobots as he can with him. We need to keep this secret."

Shellshock got to his feet. "As for the rest, there's too much that doesn't add up. The firing on the building looks almost random, there are no signs of return fire. Hell, there's no sign of Swiftstrike even diving for cover behind a wall. And from what I can guess, it looks like that Decepticon was hovering pretty low for awhile, they were both out in the open. Also, Swiftstrike was injured out in the open, why didn't the decepticon finish him off then?"

Shellshock shook his head as he looked at the other two. "You two go help out Overload and Gridlock, and let them know what we've learned. I'm gonna find Springer and Jazz."

[LadyTevar]

Crimson frowned, but then sighed. "If you're sure, Shellshock...."

She looked down to Hornet. "This is important, Hornet. You can't say a word about it to anyone else." She looked up at Shellshock. "Would it be better if I sent Gridlock to find you and Jazz, so you can tell him?"