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Training Room

Lore-lock heard Blackstrike's mayday, and transformed taking out the 'Con he was aiming for. He then laid down a blanket of energon bolts. Half of them hitting their marks, the other half sending up a screen of dust and debris. "How many of these slaggards did you load into this training run anyhow?" Lore-lock asks of the flier, all while putting bolts in the air and 'cons on the ground.

Training Room.

Blackstrike was still covering behind the rocks. He shot at a 'Con that was getting to close. He then heard Lore-Lock speaking. "Uhhhhh, I guess you don't want to know."

He then quickly rushed behind another cover, and shot at a 'Con at point blank range. He took cover and started shooting, debris flying all over the place. "I better not tell him that I put this is survival mode."

Training Room

Lore-lock dove behind a cluster of rocks for cover while trying to think of a way out of this jam. Then he remembered why he wanted to come down hereTeam building.
"We should stop trying for individual kill counts and start working together. We might actually be able skip the CR chamber after. Have any brilliant battle plans sitting on yer logic circuits?"
The scout asks of the black mech, between dodging and returning fire. But somehow he still gets grazed across his skull plate.
"By Primus that smarts!" He curses as he sends off a tight spread of bolts at the drone that hit him.

Training Room.

Blackstrike took cover behind the rock. He heard Lore-Lock speaking. "Let me think for a moment!" He quickly thought, his mind procesor working at full speed. "I got it!"

He quickly grabbed his tools kit. He had forgotten it for his last battle, but he now carries it everywhere. He quickly grabbed a laser, pieces of metal and his Scatter Blaster. "Hey, Lore-Lock, do you have a blaster to spare?!"

Training Room

"Sorry, Blackie ya think you could strip one off a 'Con. All I have is my crossbow and energon axe." As he finished his reply a drone got close enough for the axe, but sadly it only got a energy bolt into it's face plate. Before that one hit the dirt, Lore-lock had three more bolts going down range. He didn't dare check his damage meter, the less he knew about that the longer he could keep going. I sure hope a simply oil bath will take care of any damage I get. I'm too shiny to start rusting!! He thought as various projectiles whizzed around.

Training Room.

"Well, this will have to do!!" Blackstrike quickly grabbed at small laser that he had in his kit, and attached it to his Scatter Blaster.

He then stood up, his Scatter Blaster now looking bigger than before. He raised his Blaster, and pointed it towards a group of 5 'Cons. "Look this Lore-lock!!" Then, he shot his Scatter Blaster. When the Blaster shot, it wasn't the usual pelts, it was a powerfull beam that destroyed the group of 'Cons, and a panel near them.

Suddenly, the drones and holograms deactivated. "Uhh, I think I broke it."

Training Room

Lore-lock froze and his optics flickered. "While I am glad that you found a fix. How in Primus do you plan on fixing the holo-emitter?" He asks, Blackstrike, after the sparks stop flying. Continuing slightly crestfallen, "I was having fun."

Training room.

"Uhh, let me check."

Blackstrike walked towards the panel he destroyed. "All right, if I remove this, and fix this, I think it should do it." He grabbed some tools from his kit, and removed some pieces from the panel.

"Well, I think it's good now." He then pressed the power button in the panel. Nothing happened. "Looks like I destroyed the power core. I'm going to need energy."

He looked at his Scatter Blaster, and grabbed it. He then removed the laser he attached before. "Perfect."

He then introduced it in the panel, and pressed the button again. This time, it worked. "All right, we're good to go." He pressed more buttons, and the drones and holograms activated again.

He quickly took cover behind a rock, and started shooting. "Come on Lore-lock, your fun is back!!"

Training Room

Lore-lock sprang into action. As his axe came out of storage the scout charged the nearest 'Con. He started his blade back and low. He set his course to have him just close enough so that the head of the axe would intersect perfectly with it's hip. However, He hit some loose sand and still stuck the blade in it's leg. He tucked into a roll trying to look like it was planned. "I meant for that to happen." He declared as he angled for his next target.

Med Bay

The room nearly cleared out once the recovery team disappeared into their respective CR chambers. With the returning to normal Ratchet let out a relived sigh. He and Axle hadn’t been this busy for a while. It was good to have something to do, but not when you’re a medic during a war. The Chief Medical Officer nimbly rewired the necessary leads in Hardhead’s neck so that his cranum could be reattached without any problems.

“How’re ya doin’, Axle?”

Axle moved quickly, but was sure to perform an effective job. The field medic wanted to be sure there were no altercations when putting Hardhead back together.

“He’s done. I made sure to keep the wire harness to the left so it’ll be easier to reattach.”

Ratchet smiled and nodded before looking back down and completing the last soldering joint.

“Alright, give me his head and I’ll get it back onto his shoulders.”

Axle cradled the cranium in his arms as he moved to Ratchet’s side. The medical chief then proceeded to make all the necessary connections; he then lowered the head down and twisted back into position. Both medics then made sure there were no issues with the fit and then promptly rebooted Hardhead’s systems. If everything was done correctly then the green warrior would be up and running in moments.

Command Center

“No need for the formality Jetfire,” Prime replied as Jetfire entered and snapped a salute. “I’m glad to have you here though. It seems we have a situation that may require your special expertise.”

The Autobot commander tapped in a sequence and brought up a display of the site of the recent underwater battle on the main screen. “We recently fought a battle with the Decepticons here, underwater. We recovered a significant amount of energon, but lost a fair amount as well.” Prime held up a hand expecting Jetfire’s inevitable question, and cutting it off.

“Yes, it was real, unadulterated, energon. Blaster recovered it from somewhere, I still haven’t debriefed him fully, so I don’t have all the details here, but I believe it was a lost shipment from the early days of the war.”

“In any case,” he said, returning to his explanation, “the Decepticons set off an explosion to keep us from recovering the whole supply, and I’m worried about the ecological ramifications of dumping that much raw energon into this planet’s oceans. We’re fighting a war here, and war means casualties, but I’d like to limit the destruction if possible. That’s where you come in.”

“I want you to see what can be done to limit the destruction, and if it’s possible to filter the energon from the water. Energon is too rare a resource to lose it without making every possible effort to recover it. If you need engineering assistance consider Blackstrike at your disposal.”

Med-bay

Surprisingly, no one objected when Blaster offered to provide some Earth music for them to work by. Standing near a convenient table, Blaster transformed, and landed neatly on its’ surface. It only took a moment for him to make a selection, and soon, Disturbed’s Asylum was blaring from his speakers.

Cargo Hold

When they had finished loading the energon into the storage locker, Ironhide closed the door, and entered his command code to secure it. With the lockout in place, only he, Prime, and Prowl could open it short of blasting through the armored bulkhead itself.

“Yeah, we’re done Goraz. Ah appreciate the help. If you got somethin’ else you wanna do, go ahead. Ah’m headed fer the med-bay to check in on the wounded,” the old veteran replied then headed out. If Goraz followed, that was fine. If not, well that was fine too.

As he approached the med-bay, Ironhide couldn’t mistake the thump of Blaster’s speakers. Only he and maybe Jazz would inflict that kind of noise on everyone else.

“Blaster, cut that slaggin’ noise off!” Ironhide demanded as he entered the room. He had to yell in his best battlefield roar to be heard over the racket. Blaster complied, and the song cut off in mid word.

“Well I liked it,” Blaster remarked sullenly as he resumed his robot form.

“Yer the only one,” Ironhide replied with a half-grin to take the sting from his words. Then he turned his attention back to what he’d come for.

It was obvious from a quick glance at the CR logs that most of the retrieval team was still inside. Lore-lock, and surprisingly, Blackstrike were already up and about, but the rest were still recovering. Ratchet and Axle had just about finished repairs to Hardhead, so Ironhide joined them in waiting for the big warrior to come back online. That was the one he had been most worried about, and if Hardhead got up from the slab, it would be a big relief for him.

Medical Bay

From the darkness came a sound, a very loud and annoying sound. In fact, it was so loud it was enough to wake the dead or, in this particular case, a stasis-locked mech. The blackness soon turned to light as Hardhead's optics flickered on and his systems booted back up. The veteran soldier let out a groan as he peered up at Axle, Ratchet and Ironhide. "Hey guys. What happened? Where am I? And what was that awful noise I just heard?!" Hardhead slowly turned his head and looked over to see Blaster standing nearby. "Oh, that was you, wasn't it? I should have guessed."

Finally, it all started to come back to him. The last thing Hardhead remembered was being underwater and seeing Blitzwing coming at him with his sword ready to strike. Then he remembered everything spinning around and around before eventually seeing his own body fall to the ocean floor. After that, it all went dark. "That fraggin' Blitzwing decapitated me, didn't he? Son of a glitch! I'll rip him apart one limb at a time and ship each piece back to Megatron! Let me up! I've got to get back out there!"

Hardhead apparently didn't realize that the underwater battle was already over, and his anger began to grow as he tried to get up off the medical table he had been lying on. He fully expected the others to try and restrain him, and they were welcome to try. But Hardhead was as stubborn as they come and would have his way regardless of what anyone else tried to tell him. Plus, his aggression would only increase once he found out that he had missed the rest of the fight and he would have to wait a while before he could have his revenge on the triplechanger.

*********

In a nearby CR chamber, Smokescreen stirred as he heard a terrible noise echoing all around him that caused the whole chamber to shake. At first, Smokey thought that it might be an earthquake, but he quickly realized that the noise in question was actually Earth music and immediately assumed that either Blaster or Jazz was in the med bay blaring their speakers at full volume. It was sad that the song was so loud Smokey could clearly hear it even while sealed inside of a CR chamber. Dear Primus, is there no where I can get some peace and quiet? Thankfully, the noise soon stopped and Smokey's repair cycle was able to finish without the accompanying musical vibrations.

The CR door then slid open with a hiss and the diversionary tactician stepped out into the med bay just in time to see a very agitated Hardhead trying to get up off of a nearby medical berth. Smokescreen looked over and caught sight of Blaster standing off to one side. So, you're the source of the music, Smokey thought, as he made his way over to the communications expert. "So, Blaster, what's wrong with Hardhead?" The red and blue mech asked in a friendly tone. "He not like your musical performance, either?"

Command Center

Jetfire listened in on what Prime had to say. It seemed things weren't going as stellar as Prime possibly hoped for, but this was war and there was nothing stellar about it. But the thought of Blaster having found a lost shipment intriuged him. However, wherever Blaster got it from, it was better off not being visited again. Then Prime brought up the matter of the ecological damage. No doubt the current infiltraiton phase was keeping the Autobots from counteracting the Decepticons properly. And it would not help their efforts when attempting any future dialouge with the planets inhabitants. But it was filled with loopholes and the Depticons were using them at every oportunity they could find.

"I understand Optimus." he said. "It's unfortunant that the Decepticons are resorting to back-handed tactics, such as exploiting the limits of the current Infiltration phase to their favor. I should be able to resolve the issue of the energon contamination easily. I believe I can create a series of energy collectors that can channel the water and filter out the energy, forming more energon. While it won't be as much as whatever was in that vessel, it should give us a decent ammount."

Finding a means to contain the damage was another issue, one that would require further research.

"As for the containment, I'd like to examine the blast site first-hand. The residual readings and an observation of ground zero should give me greater insight as to what we require." he explained.

Whatever he could come up with, there would be one drawback. He was going to need a field test that matched, or had similar output of the blast in the ocean.

Medbay

Prowl exited the CR chamber to loud noise, feeling reinvigorated, though only slightly annoyed. He half expected it to be Jazz, but it was not. Jazz was right where he left him, awaiting repairs,a s was Brawn. Prowl spotted Blaster as the source of the music... again. No doubt it was proving to be a distraction to the medics. And Hardhead clearly had no idea what had happened.

"At ease soldier, the battle's over!" Prowl ordered. "Save that frustration for the next time! You'll have plenty of opportunities to take it out on which ever Decepticon did it."

The last thing the medics needed was Hardhead's temper getting the best of him and making a further mess. Even Bumblebee's spark would be at risk, given his new shell was not yet compelte.

Training Room.

Blackstrike saw Lore-lock's accident. "Yeah, rigth, you totally meant it." He then shot at a 'Con nearby. He quickly dashed to another rock. There, he shot at a 'Con that jumped near him.

The pelts hit the 'Con, but some of them passed through him, hitting at big light panel nearby. A part of the pane fall over two 'Cons, smashing them. "You know, I'm accidentaly awesome."

Cargo Hold.
Goraz listened as Ironhide spoke. "Yeah, I'll go to the medbay too." But Ironhide was already moving, and probably didn't hear him. He quickly followed Ironhide.

"I hope everybody is fine." He was worried. He had lost too many friends in the war, and even though he didn't knew most of the mechs here, he still cared a lot for them.

Medbay.
As Goraz approached the medbay, he heard an incredible loud noise. It was bothering him. "What the frag is that?"

When he entered, he saw Ironhide yelling at a device. At first, he didn't understand why, but he quickly realized that it was a 'Bot transformed. Then, the mech stopped. "Thank Primus. I guess that's Blaster."

Then, he saw as a mech that was lying on a table stood up. It was Hardhead. When the mech started to get aggresive, Goraz prepared himself. Although Hardhead was big, Goraz was big too, and would never back up. He met a lot of trouble makers during the war, and he understood that a quick fist in the faceplate could make them back down.

"Unless you want to enter a CR chamber, I suggest you to calm down."

Training Room

Lore-lock kept his axe moving.
"Blackie, somehow I don't think that was the goal of your shot?" the shorter bot replied as he watched the panel clobbered 'Cons struggle under the clearly temporary trap. Hidden by his spinning axe, Lore-lock waded across the carnage covered scene and cleanly finished off the pair. However, some of the flying sparks were not coming from the recently stasis-locked drones.
"I think we may have to bring this to a satisfying conclusion quickly. I've taken a few more hit's than you should be letting me."

Med Bay

Ratchet stepped back as Hardhead tried to get up from his med berth, but it wasn’t in fear from any unwanted injury, no, the Medical Officer moved carefully backwards to a nearby equipment tray. Once he was close enough he quietly grabbed an injection device loaded with a strong sedative. Ratchet then got Axle’s attention and motioned for the field medic to position himself between him and Hardhead. Axle responded with a gentle nod and made his way to where he could block the green warrior’s view.

Ratchet then made his move. He gripped Hardhead’s shoulder with one hand; mean while Axle dashed to try and restrain Hardhead’s opposite shoulder with both of his hands. Ratchet then moved the injection device towards Hardhead’s neck. With any luck he’d be able to insert it into one of the flex lines and put a stop to his agitated state.

Medical Bay

As Hardhead sat up on the med berth, he heard Prowl say something about the battle being over and to save his aggression for another time. This caused Hardhead to stop and turn his head towards the military strategist. "The battle's over already?! Slaggit! That damn Blitzwing!" The green warrior slammed his fist down into the table just as Axle and Ratchet tried to restrain him by both shoulders. It was then that Hardhead caught sight of an injection device coming close to his neck. "Oh, no you don't!" The war veteran said as he quickly stood up and pulled away from the two well-meaning medics. "Sorry guys. I've had enough sharp objects coming into contact with my neck recently. I don't need anymore. I'll be fine."

A calmer Hardhead then looked over at Ironhide, who appeared to be relieved that he was up and running again. "Sorry about that, Big Red. I'm just upset that I wasn't more help to you guys out there. Blitzwing got lucky. If it wasn't for Ramjet holding me at the waist, I would've been ready for the triplechanger's attack. However, that's still no excuse. I should have been better prepared, and the next time I will be. I promise you that!"

Standing nearby, Smokescreen watched impassively as Hardhead settled down, even without the help of a sedative from the medics. It had been best for the diversion expert to keep his distance as he was no match for the sheer strength of a mech the likes of Hardhead. Instead, Smokey remained standing next to Blaster, the communications officer who had serenaded the entire med bay earlier with his loud Earth music.

"So, Blaster, I see you wasted no time finding a radio station that you liked. I could hear you from inside the CR chamber," Smokey said with a chuckle. "In all seriousness, it's good to have you back safe and sound. You had us all worried there for a while. I just hope we were able to bounce enough of that pure energon back here before the shuttle was destroyed. We could sure use the extra power boost." The diversion expert paused a moment before then asking a question that was probably on everyone's mind. "By the way, Blaster, where did you find all that energon, anyway?"

Bounce Pad

Hot Spot materialized inside of the Autobot base and was in motion instantly. His team had just arrived in orbit around Earth in their transport the Guardian and he didn’t want to waste any time. First Aid had tried to stop him, saying that they should contact the base before going down but Hot Spot wanted none of that. They had important news and he wasn’t about to just broadcast it over a communication frequency, especially on a planet with Decepticons on it. Besides, he had been cooped up in that ship for far too long. It felt good to get out and really move around.

Corridors

The imposing Autobot barreled down the hallways. The corridors echoed with his heavy footballs as he made his way to the command center. He did his best to avoid colliding with any other Autobots roaming the hallways, but he knew the information he had was of the utmost importance. If Optimus Prime himself wasn’t on the planet he would have just skipped even informing them of what had happened. He just would have started issuing orders and getting some Bots going looking for them.

Command Center

Finally he reached the command center. Optimus was off to the side talking with Jetfire. Hot Spot hated appearing rude but he had little choice. “Optimus Prime sir, I am sorry to interrupt but I have some important information for you.” He paused a second to let his leader refocus his attention. “Sir, as you know my team and I have been working as an emergency service on various planets. We go in to help with defenses, tend to the wounded and the like.”

“Well, on our last mission we ran into Motormaster and his group. We got there just as they were leaving. We had to stay and help with the wounded so we were unable to pursue.” Hot Spot’s tone took a mournful sound. “For that I apologize sir, we shouldn’t have let them escape.” His tone and manner brightened as he continued. “We were able to get a reading on their engine emissions though. We’ve tracked them all the way to this planet. They’ve activated full stealth mode since they’ve gotten here so we can’t detect them, but at the very least they are in orbit, if not on the planet itself.”

He took a minute to let it all sink in before continuing. “Sir, I would like to volunteer for the team to hunt them down. I’ve seen the destruction they’ve done and I want to put a stop to it. I’ve already taken the liberty of adapting my form to one of the native’s ground vehicles so I won’t draw attention.”

Command Center

Optimus could see the proverbial wheels turning as Jetfire considered the problem. When the scientist made his confident pronouncement that filtering the energon from the water would be no problem, Prime was a bit taken aback. Surely it would be more difficult than a simple filter. It was an enormous quantity of water they were talking about after all, and with the force of the blast, energon would have been spread in a huge area and would be continuing to dissipate. They’d never know unless they tried, but Prime was fairly sure Jetfire’s assessment would change after he had inspected the area. And on that note…

“Feel free to check out the area Jetfire. Just make sure to observe the infiltration protocols, and take Blackstrike with you. He may be able to give you some input from a practical engineering standpoint,” Prime replied. He had just finished speaking when Hot Spot burst into the room.

As always, the Protectobot leader was going full tilt from the moment he appeared. Sometimes that was a negative, but today it simply led to a concise, if somewhat eager, report of why Hot Spot had appeared so suddenly. Prime dismissed Jetfire with a nod and focused his full attention on the Protectobot.

“Good work Hot Spot,” Prime said gravely. “The Stunticons are always a threat by themselves, but added to Megatron’s other activities lately, their appearance takes on a whole new level of threat.”

The Autobot commander again tapped a sequence into his control board, and once more the display changed, switching back to the view of the Decepticon base at Mt. St. Helens. “We have managed to locate Megatron’s base of operations here,” he said. As he spoke a map of North America appeared in the lower portion of the screen with the location of Decepticon Headquarters highlighted in purple. “We haven’t detected any incoming bounce beams in the last several days, so we have to assume that you’ve either beat the Stunticons to the ground, or they haven’t bounced directly into the Decepticon base. Knowing their predilection for wanton destruction, I’d guess Motormaster has brought them down elsewhere and will drive from there into Washington.”

Prime paused a moment for thought then added. “Since we can’t detect bounce beams unless we’re actively scanning an area, our only option is to monitor earthly communications for patterns of traffic accidents and react from there. I’ll put,” he checked his duty log and saw that Eject was signed in at the communications array, “Eject on it. As soon as we have a location you’ll be the first to know.”

“I know it’s against your nature to sit and wait Hot Spot,” Prime chuckled, “but get your team settled in and we’ll move as soon as possible.”

Med Bay

A big grin spread across Ironhide’s face as Hardhead got back to his feet. Nothing was harder for the old red mech than putting his people in danger, and seeing them come through was one of the greatest joys in his life. Ironhide, like Goraz, was ready to put Hardhead down by force if necessary when he began thrashing around, but luckily Hardhead regained his composure without that ever becoming necessary.

“Glad to see ya back on yer feet Hardhead,” Ironhide drawled. “An’ don’t worry about getting’ got by Blitzwing buddy. We all lose every now and then,” he paused then added fiercely, “but if you don’t kick his chassis up between his audio receptors next time you see ‘im, I’ll knock you out myself.”


Before Blaster could answer Smokescreen’s first query regarding Hardhead’s condition, the big warrior had lurched to his feet and begun thrashing around. Thankfully that little episode ended before it got out of hand, and Blaster was able to answer Smokescreen’s next statement.

“You guys just don’t get it. You have to get involved in the culture you’re in or you’ll never really fit in. Besides Smokey – the music here’s great.” The communications expert smiled and clapped his companion on the wing before satisfying his curiosity about the energon.

“Actually Rewind was the one that put us on it. I know everyone will probably think it was just dumb luck since it was me that came up with it, but really it was a good bit of work. Rewind found a supply ledger from back in the early days of the war that talked about a shipment of energon bound for Cylon 4, and he couldn’t find any record of it arriving. So we tracked down communications logs from the time and tracked it until communications was lost. From there it was just a matter of extrapolating course and speed and figuring out where the ship had ended up.”

Blaster laughed and remarked, “Not a very interesting story really, and certainly not one that fits my image. I guess next time I tell it I’ll have to have beat a confession out of a Decepticon spy and fought off a horde of Seekers just to lay my hands on the energon.”

Command Center

With Optimus Prime's nod, Jetfire exited the Command Center just as Hotsport arrived. Jetfire smiled and nodded to him in acknowledgement and greeting.

Jetfire traversed the corridors of the Ark-19. Personally, he had never been on the ship, though he had layed optics upon it before. He was one of those Autobtos that vacated Cybertron sometime after the ships launch. He spent much of his time on recon, scouting out new planets for energy sources. Though he found some viable candidates, ranging from small planets to gas giants, the technology just was not around for them to utilize.

He came to a temrinal and activatd it with a laser identification, which accepted him. He needed an idea as to who was aboard first. He noticed that the Weapons Expert, Wheeljack had been apart of the crew and had since left some time ago, along with various other Autobots, some whose names he was not familiar with. He was just happy to see senior-ranked Autobots, he knew, amongst Prime's senior staff. He never really considered himself at such a position. He was a scientist, a weapons expert in particular, though that did not limit him to have some knowledge in other areas. Since he was a weapons expert, it was required that he know about various forms of energy, even various methods of extraction. While he initially concluded that the solution would be simple, he would first require a first-hand examination before he could proceed to the next step. Of course, first, he needed information on the site itself, particularly the resulting blast. That would require speaking to any Autobot that was on site.

He brought up the mission roster and noted the various Autobots, Prowl, Ironhide, Jazz, Blackstrike, Hound, Brawn, Hardhead, Smokescreen, and Shotblur. Fortunantly, he had already run into one of them. he switched his comm on to contact Ironhide.

>>"Ironhide, this is Jetfire. Do you have a few moments to spare?"<<, he asked the veteran over his comm. >>"I need to talk to someone regarding the blast site from the last mission, before I proceed there."<<

Medbay

Prowl saw that everything was in order, so it was time for him to report to the Command Center. He needed to have a word with Optimus regarding the current situation.

"I'll be in the Command Center." Prowl told the medics. "Finish up with Brawn and Jazz! As soon as they're fixed, let me know. I'll see if I can't give you both some solitude so you can finish Bumblebee's new shell."

Of course, he could go ahead and handle that later part. "Okay Autobots, with the exception of ranking personel. Anyone not currently awaiting, administering, receiving repairs, or with any real business here should exit so Ratchet and Axelcan focus! Enjoy a little downtime, but be ready!"

At the very least, this would give Ratchet and Axel some quiet. He was certain Blaster's music was grinding away at their circuits, which was the least thing they needed. With that taken care of, Prowl exited the medbay.

Medbay

Before Hardhead had a chance to reply to Ironhide's ribbing, the security chief's comm unit started buzzing for his attention. He played the message internally to avoid disrupting everyone else, and clapped Hardhead on the shoulder.

"Get yerself back on yer feet ya big lug. We're gonna need ya soon. Prime's got a bug in his craw about somethin', and usually that means some action sooner than later," he said, nodded to Ratchet and Axle, then stepped out in the hallway to reply to Jetfire's hail.

"Ah'm pretty much at loose ends right now Jetfire. Ah'll meet you in the auxiliary control room. We can use the view screens there if we need to," Ironhide transmitted, then headed off to the aforementioned area.

***

Blaster glanced over at Smokescreen, realizing he'd let his persona slip a bit. Everyone expected him to be larger than life, but no one was supposed to see the very real mech who lived behind the facade. Smokey had caught him in a moment of weakness, and so he'd gotten a more honest answer than Blaster had intended to give.

"Whoa, that was a bit too introspective wasn't it. Don't tell anyone... It'd ruin the image." He laughed again, then added, "Guess we'd better get out of here and let the Docs do what they do."

Medical Bay

Hardhead chuckled at Ironhide’s ribbing. “Don’t you worry, Red. The next time I see Blitzwing, it’ll be his head that rolls even if I have to rip it off with my bare hands and shove it up his aft section!” Headhead clenched up his right fist and punched it into his left palm as the security chief began listening to an internal communication. Ironhide then patted the war veteran on the shoulder and told him to get back on his feet soon. “You got it, Red. I’ll be good as new in no time. Just call me when you need me.”

Once Ironhide had left the med bay, Hardhead made his way over to a recharging station and sat down. “I’m running on empty, guys. I gotta refill my tanks,” he muttered to the medics as he plugged himself in and let fresh energon flow into his depleted fuel cells.

***

Smokescreen listened with great interest as Blaster told him how he located the lost energon. It wasn’t a very exciting story to say the least, but it was still intriguing nevertheless. Smokey also found it funny that Blaster was so concerned with preserving his larger than life image. The diversion expert smiled and patted the red mech on the arm. “Don’t worry, Blaster, your secret is safe with me. Besides, you did see some action there at the end when you were shot down. That fits your image pretty well I think,” Smokey responded, attempting to reassure the communications specialist. “Plus, the most important thing is that you got the energon to us. It doesn’t really matter how you did it. But, if anyone asks me I’ll just tell them you fought off an armada of seekers in order to get here.”

Smokescreen then nodded as Blaster suggested getting out of the medics’ way. “Good idea. Hey, since you’re into Earth culture so much, maybe you’d like to watch a little auto racing. Let’s head on down to the recreation chamber and see if we can’t tap into a local sports network. Expose you to some NASCAR. Sound good?”

Corridors outside Medbay

"NASCAR, seriously? I would have never figured you for a drive fast turn left kind of bot Smokey," Blaster said as he and Smokescreen headed out of the medbay towards the communications center. "I mean NASCAR is to racing as Country is to music - technically you can call it that, but it's a far cry from the best thing out there. But hey, it's something to do, and I bet Eject's already got the comm center tuned in to every sports broadcast on the planet."

Communications Center

Eject was kicked back, his feet up on the edge of the control board, watching sports on each of the 25 screens. Basketball season had just started in the US, so he had that, hockey, soccer (most of the world called it football, but he'd latched on to the American version first, so he tended to use their terminology), and golf live. Not to mention the highlight programs from ESPN, and the tape feeds of the previous weekend's football games. The only thing that could have made things any better would have been a big mug of energon - nuclear accelerated to give it a bit of kick.

Much to Eject's chagrin, the lower left screen went red just as Sidney Crosby was driving to the goal. Of course the 'cons would have to get up to something during a power play... grrrrr.

Eject focused in on the screen, his optics interfacing with the Ark's communications subsystem and bringing a news report to the forefront. It seemed there had been a series of horrible auto accidents in Chicago. Normally information like that wouldn't have garnered a second look, but Prime had asked to be informed of any major traffic smash ups immediately since Hot Spot had warned them that the Stunticons were now on Earth. That had been less that a cycle ago, and they'd already got a hit that had the unmistakable look of Stunticon activity.

Eject's fingers fairly flew across the comm board as he forwarded the bulletin to Prime, then he settled back in for some serious viewing. Good thing the Ark's systems would let him rewind. He needed to know if Sid had scored...

Command Center

Eject's bulletin appeared on the screen in front of Prime before Hot Spot had even left the bridge. Optimus' optics flashed as he scanned the news brief. It seemed he'd been right, the Stunticons were predictable in their love of chaos, they hadn't been able to resist their desire to wreck things on their way to the Decepticon base.

"Hold on Hot Spot," Prime said. "It looks like your R&R will have to wait. The Stunticons are on the ground in the human city of Chicago, not too far from here."

"Your request to lead the mission is granted. Pick your troops and roll out. Get the Stunticons away from the humans to minimize casualties, then do what you can to neutralize them. I'm sure I don't have to remind you that we're still under phase 3 of the infiltration protocols, so no robot mode engagement unless you're sure it won't be observed."

Corridors

Jetfire received Ironhide's response. It was fortunate that the veteran had some down time. This would provide him an opportunity to catch up and get information from someone who actually witnessed the tragedy. now how to contain such damage would require some considerable research, of course he'd need to know the exact force that was exerted when the explosion occurred. Part of him toyed with the idea of some warhead that could be deployed, though he would have to make one capable of similar performances in varieties of environments. Gravity well technology would work well in an environment such as space, but on a planet, it’d be causing just as much, if not more damage, and needlessly eliminating matter in the process. He was probably going to have to set the limits of containment field technology, though he would need something that would not jsut work in simulation, but also out in the field.

>>"I'll meet you there. Jetfire out."<< he replied just before cutting the comm. He activated the terminal and pulled up the schematic to locate the auxiliary control room and activated his tracking system and used it to set a path towards the auxiliary control room.

He traversed down the corridor towards his next destination.

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

Prowl, meanwhile, continued down the corridor towards the Command Center. He wished to discuss his concerns with Optimus, though he did intend to speak with the senior staff as well. He would not force Prime into any action, though he did think that re-examining their current long-term strategies was in order. The human life lost and the collateral damage sustained because of their very presence would not help the Autobots case. While Prime would probably address this, there as no doubt in his mind that recent events would not be smiled upon by the leaders of the current world when the time time to approach them.

Given what he had learned about the humans, thus far. the humans were indeed capable of great compassion, but also great violence. And their history was one littered with paranoia, deception, irrationality, and even genocide. One thing Prowl knew was that no matter how politics or a world changes, the very nature of a living being is always present deep don. In his mind, the Autobots had been labeled as hostile. They had no idea that a war was going on, one that had just happened to come to their planet. They needed a means to help distinguish themselves from their enemy, by establishing an understanding. He would present an idea to Prime, one he would expect Optimus to take into consideration of a future operation.

He train of though stopped once he came to...

Command Center

The doors slid open as Prowl entered. He found Hot Spot now amongst them. He was certain his team was probably not too far away either. This was good for the Autobots. He stood next to the Protectobot leader and saluted.

"Pardon my interruption Optimus.", he said. "I've put the repaired and fully operable Autobots on standby and had them leave the Medbay so Ratchet and Axel can work. Jazz and Brawn should be the last two needing repairs."

After a short moment, he spoke again. “Also, when you have a chance, I wanted to go over some of our long-term strategies. The activities of the Decepticons has me concerned about how they may hinder any long-term objectives we have, especially in regards to the humans.”

Indeed, this was a concern for him, they needed plans as too how to approach the humans when the time came. It was clear to him, after briefly studying their history, the forward approach would not work, given everything that had happened thus far.