Chapter Text
July 16th, 2011, Earth Time
While many planets in the galaxy have the potential to breathe life onto the surface, very few get the opportunity to do so. Earth is a prime example of one of these worlds having that chance. Though the humans residing on it and calling it their home are blissfully ignorant of a struggle going on. A several millennia old war was being waged on the very surface, hiding from the sight of the humans, all for a resource no longer potent on their dead world. Energon. To these beings, it's is their blood, their power, their last remnant of their world.
Right now, there's a group of soldiers and scientists harvesting what they believed was a new kind of Dust. This group was sent by a kingdom of another Realm, the Hawthorne Kingdom, to study a strange energy reading coming from this area. Many in the kingdom believe that the Elders have extending their reach beyond the Mortal Realms, looking for new resources and allies to turn the tide of war. Doctor Sarus Gemlock, her team, and a platoon of Hawthorne soldiers was sent with orders from the Queen herself to bring back any samples of the reading and secure an outpost there. The ladder of simple enough to do, but the former was more difficult as the reading seem to be everywhere, and yet no where at the same time.
While the assignment was suppose to last only a month, the troubles they faced set them back several time and forced the mission to be extended, until now. In what they believed was the US, Doctor Gemlock and her team found a source that emanated the readings they've encountered before, a collection of strange, blue, glowing crystals. Soon, the site was surrounded by Hawthorne soldiers and harvesting equipment. Some of the soldiers were helping the scientists with harvesting the crystals, but most were providing security for the team. Lieutenant Gale Waterdeep, a buff, soft spoke, pale, black haired soldier was the head of this security force, and he was on his way to meet the good doctor.
"Doctor Gemlock?" He said, seeing a group of scientists studying the crystals in the lab.
"Lieutenant!" One of the scientist said, taking her eyes off of the sample she was studying and approached the officer. The doctor was surprisingly short compared to her colleges, standing about the same height as Neo, baring metallic green hair, and had skin akin to that of Theo's, only she was a Shark Faunus and not a Tiger Faunus as shown by her neck gills and back fin. "You're not going to believe what I found."
"Blue Dust?"
"Very funny. Follow me." She left the lab with pep in her step and a clipboard in her hands as Gale followed behind her.
"So as you know, these crystals resonate with a strange reading that had us stumped and witling with our thumbs."
"I remember that day miss."
"Well we find that it may not be what we thought at a glance."
"Dust?"
"Close, but no cigar. While Dust is more volatile and arcane in nature, this seems like it crystalized blood, sharing some characteristics as our blood. But it seems this is the raw version of the substance rather then the refined."
"How the hell can blood be a crystal before a liquid?"
"That's what we're trying to find out. But I assume you didn't track me down for some update on our progress."
"No ma'am, though it makes our mission here more clear." As they were conversing, the two walked through the tunnels that were carved out by the soldiers to allow the mining for the crystals. Near the end of the conversation, the two got to the entrance of the tunnel and was meant with a red sports car that confused the doctor.
"And what would that be." The car said, scaring the shit out of the doctor.
"Please tell me that was you?" Gemlock said, looking at the officer with confusion.
"Nope. That was the car." Gale said, looking at the muscle car with a deadpan expression. "It's the fucking car."
"Hey!" The car said, revving up in anger and scaring Gemlock even more. "I'm no car you flesh bag."
"Then what the hell are you?" Gale said, looking at the car with annoyance. "You must be some sort of AI to be able to control a whole car."
"The humans here don't have the tech for that." Gemlock said, keeping her distance from the car and standing next to the Lieutenant.
"Of course they don't." The car said before he started to transform into a tall, twenty foot robot, cueing the surrounding soldiers to move and take aim at the metal man. "I'm an alien!"
"And I'm a Faunus." Gale said, taking off his glove and showing the metal man that he was a Wolf Faunus. "Tell me something I don't know."
"A what?" The metal man said before one of the soldiers ran over.
"Lieutenant! We got fighters flying in!"
"Battle positions!" Gale said, causing the soldiers to disperse. "Alpha Squad, get to the towers and get the guns online! Gamma Squad, get the science team to the evac point! Harold Squad, radio command for extraction!" He then looked at the metal man with authority. "You either need to help get Gemlock and her team out or help us defend this dig site."
"Guess it's a good thing Cliffjumper is here." The metal man said before following the soldiers to the front of the dig site. As they got into position, the fighters came in a flying V, consisting of twelve ships. But as they approached the dig site, they did the same thing as Cliffjumper, transforming into purple robots, and surprising the soldiers.
"We got Titans!" One of the soldiers called out as she aimed her plasma rifle at the first.
"Not Titans..." Cliffjumper said, turning one of his hands into a cannon. "Decepticons!"
"Attack!" One of the Cons ordered, cueing the others to draws weapons in the same matter Cliffjumper did and charged at the soldiers, firing as they ran. The soldiers returned fire, sending laser and plasma bolts at the robots, tagging them and seeming to hurt them as they took cover from the barrage. As the soldiers continued to fire on the robots, Cliffjumper rushed in and used his cannon to get some hits in as well and flush them out for the soldiers to hit. Cliffjumper started this by dodging several shots before grabbing one of them and using them as a shield. It seems the concept of friendly fire is nonexistence to the Cons as they shot the one Cliffjumper had up with, killing him, and shocking the soldiers with the display.
"Did they just...?" One of them said, holding fire on his Gatling Laser.
"Keep firing!" Gale said, using a Plasma Caster to lay into the closest Cons.
"Yes Sir!" The same soldier said, revving up his weapon and letting it loose.
"Sir! Gamma is in possession of 115!" The Sergeant of Gamma said, Gilligan Lavender, over comms.
"Get them to the evac point and await Command!" Gale said before continuing to let his Plasma Caster roar.
"Yes Sir!" Gill said before the comms were taken down by Con fire on the comm station.
"Radio's down!" One of the techs said, being pinned down by laser fire. "We can't contact Command!"
"I can get you some evac!" Cliffjumper said, making short work of a Vehicon before running back to the others and taking cover. "Cliff to Prime, I'm at an Energon dig site with some humanoid fighters that need to evac some important personal. When can I get a Ground Bridge?"
"Ratchet. Send Arcee and Bumblebee first, Bulkhead and I will follow."
"Roger that, sending backup now." Right in cue, a bright green, swirling portal opened, similar to that of a Hawthorne Teleporter and out came a small, blue motorcycle, revving it's engine as the portal flashed a little. Then a orange and black muscle car came out of the portal, beeping and booping in morse code.
"Who are they?!" Gale said, taking cover to reload when he saw the two vehicles emerge from the portal.
"Allies!" Cliffjumper said before the two rushed over to the soldiers. As they approached, they too transformed into tall metal people with the blue one standing at about five meters and revealing a bit of pink on her head while the orange and black one stood at twenty one feet. This caught the Cons attention as the two charged into the fray.
"Kill the purple ones!" Gale said, getting unanimous nods from his troops before turning and resuming fire on them. Cliffjumper then joined his friends and partner in destroying the Cons, but that's easier said then done as another squad of fighters were descending on the battlefield, transformed, and started firing on the soldiers and robots. While the soldiers hadn't taken any losses yet, the increasing in opponents and laser fire spiked those chances.
"Lieutenant, we're at the evac point, but we can't contact command!" Gill said, sounding really spotty as they were down to short range comms, and they were at the borders of the range.
"Stay put and hidden! We can't let 115 get captured or killed!" Gale said before getting hit in the chest, feeling the bolt pierce his armor and Aura before burning into his chest, lungs, and finally heart. Before he could understand that he was dying, another bolt hit him in the head, completely destroying it and killing him in the process.
"The Lieutenant's down!" One of his soldiers call out, seeing the death happen from the scope of her Gauss Rifle. "I repeat! Lieutenant Waterdeep is KIA!"
"What do we do!?"
"We keep fighting!"
"But without the Lieutenant..."
"I said keeping fighting!"
*Boom*
"Ahhh!"
"Sergeant!" As the chaos unfolded from the death of Gale, Cliffjumper, Arcee, and Bumblebee were fighting the Cons with everything they had, but they couldn't keep many of them focused on the three and instead went after the soldiers, gunning them down and tearing apart their fortifications.
While the battle was taking place, Gamma Squad was waiting a few miles away at the designated evac zone with Gemlock and her staff. Gill was keeping an eye out for any possible enemies while trying to raise Gale on comms. While she did get him and told him about their situation, she also heard him die on the other end of it, confusing and concerning her.
"Lieutenant?" She called out once, heard nothing. "Lieutenant?!" Again, heard nothing. "Fuck! Waterdeep's dead."
"What?" Gemlock said, walking up to the soldier with concern and fear.
"He's dead." Gill said, turning over her shoulder and looking at the scared doctor. "I was talking to him and one of those things shot him. He gone and we have no way to contact to Command."
"oh gods... Oh gods...."
"Calm down ma'am. We'll get through this. We just need a communications tower."
"But the scramble codes were in the comms tent. If that down and destroyed, we can't safely contact Remnant without everyone listening in."
"Don't worry Miss Gem." Cliffjumper said, using his commlink to connect to the Remnanites. "Ratchet can help you there." Then another portal opened next to them, letting out a green jeep, honking it's horn with reckless abandon before transforming into a bulkier, twenty five foot tall wrecking ball of a man. After him was a white and orange ambulance, spinning around to Gamma and the scientists.
"It's not safe for you here." The vehicle said, opening his doors to the eggheads. "Allow me to escort you to safety."
"Get in!" Gill said, cuing the group to board the vehicle with three guards as they rest of them ready for battle. "Tell me the other squads are fairing better then the Lieutenant?"
"Not with the about the Cons flying in." The green robot said, seeing the Faunus and Human warriors gear up for a fight. "There's no way you can take all those Cons on. It's best if you retreat with your friends."
"That would go against the oath we swore when we became Sky Forged Warriors." Gill said, moving the collar of her uniform to reveal a tattoo given to all in the regiment. A set of blue and purple wings burning bright as lightning struck around it. "We do not leave our brothers and sisters behind. We live together, we fight together, and we die together. There is no other way, and Commander Hawthorne expects this and respects us for doing so." The rest of the warriors cried out in agreement as they ran back to the battlefield, followed by the green robot as the ambulance got the scientists to safety through the portal.
Back to the dig sight, Cliffjumper, Bumblebee, and Arcee did their best to cover the retreating Hawthorne soldiers, but with a new wave of Cons hitting the ground, this time lead by a greyish silver fighter jet, things looked bleak for them. Then one more portal opened, revealing a red and blue truck rushing out of said portal, hastily transforming into the tallest of these metal people at thirty feet and resonating an aura of authority.
"Autobots, cover the Hawthorians' escape!" He spoke with a sense of calmness and careful consideration as he drew arms and assisted in this manner. This showed the soldiers that this wasn't any leader they've seen where they direct the scene from cover, but one that leads the charge and gets his hands dirty.
"Everyone on me!" Gill said, positioning her troops to best maximize their range to cover their comrades escape. Gill's official rank is Master Sergeant, so she outranked the others with the Lieutenant's death. The surviving troops heeded her orders and began to escape with some of the heavier troopers providing cover fire as they were too slow. Cliffjumper provided cover as well while Arcee and Bumblebee went with the others and cover them this way, as well as shield them from any incoming fire. Within moments, the remaining soldiers were safely escorted to the portal and Gamma began their own retreat, all except for a handful that were still fighting with Cliffjumper.
"Cliff!" Arcee call out as the silver Con rushed to blue bike and tried to scuffle with her, but the red one got in the way and literally threw him back to his friends.
"I'll be fine, just go!" Cliff said, blasting away at the Cons and using his body as a shield, all the while Gill watched her brothers and sisters fall, one by one. "Save the Humanoids!"
"We must depart Arcee." The red one said, covering the green jeep's escape while Bumblebee grabbed Arcee. Right as Gill was about to be dragged with the others, she saw her brother fighting with Cliffjumper, Karson, with his Gatling Laser. He turned back to see his big sis' escape and mouthed one thing to her.
Remember us.... Remember our Sacrifice...
With that lingering in the air, Gill was dragged through the portal with the Autobots, seeing it close soon after and leaving him, his comrades, and Cliffjumper to fight the Cons in a down hill battle.
"AD VICTORIUM!!!!" Karson screamed as he let loose an array of lasers, tagging, dismembering, and killing several Cons, never letting off the trigger as he saw his friends, his comrades, his shield-brothers and sisters fall all around him, as well as Cliffjumper losing a fight with the silver Con. At the start of this he had four Fusion Cores on his belt and one in the gun he wielded, now he was down to his last Core, firing the last two hundreds shots it had, and they all met their targets and took them down. But all good things come to an end as his gun ran dry, sound out with a powered down noise and snapping him out of his battle rage. But he didn't have time to understand what happened as a Con grabbed him and ripped him in half, letting his guts drop to the ground before tossing the two halves aside. With Karson's final breath, he saw Cliffjumper getting jumped by three purple Cons while the silver Con watched and laughed. Then everything went dark and Corporal Karson Lavender was at peace, sent to an appropriate afterlife for his deeds and allowing his sister to live.
-Autobot Base, Nevada, Twenty Six Hours Later-
After the massacre that was Baldur Platoon, the survivors were resting within the confines of an old US base that they allowed the Autobots to occupy and use against the Decepticons and lick their wounds. Most were given the mercy of having only minor injuries and some bruised bones, but some of the worst had missing limbs or were on the brink of death and needed Ratchet to operate in his vehicle form. Thanks to him taking the form of an ambulance, he can preform surgeries on humans, and in this case Faunus, with near perfect results, as well as learn more about their anatomy. He was also able to fabricate bionic limbs for those with torn off, shot off, or mangled limbs.
Gill was one of the lucky ones to be able to walk without any wounds or missing limbs. But that doesn't mean she was grateful for this as she tended to her men now under her command. She also kept her feelings about the dead to herself. Her mentor, her brother, they were dead, killed at the hands of larger, more durable beings that could transform into cars and jets and what the fuck not. Gill felt weak, she felt like a failure, she didn't feel like the soldier Kie saw during the Grimm War and recruited into one of the most fierce regiments of the Frontier. She didn't feel like the student of the Chieftain's guard before they became a kingdom with the rest of the confederacy, and she certainly didn't feel worthy of leading what was left of the platoon.
She was a fraud, she felt like she was suppose to die on that battlefield and Gale should have been here tending to the wounded. But she couldn't change the past, she just had to live with what happened, and faced the consequences once Commander Hawthorne had been found and returned to his family.
"Sergeant Lavender?" Someone said behind the kneeling soldier, tending to one of her squad mates. She turned to see a dark skinned, six foot tall man in a grey and white suit, as well as having a gut that nearly nudged the back of Gill's head.
"Guess that would be me...." Gill said, quietly before making sure her friend was ok. They told her that their good and let her talk to the suited man.
"I'm Agent William Fowler, I represent Team Prime and apart of Unit E." He introduced himself with a soft and understanding voice, understanding what Gill and her troops had just went through. "Before I get to my being here, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for the lose of your shield-siblings as you put it."
"Thank you..." Gill said, feeling slightly less like a failure, as well as appreciating his sentiment. "Though I don't think it's everyday that you get the shit kicked out of you by giant metal people."
"No, it's not..." Fowler said, wanting to laugh, but he knew this wasn't the time. "Now for the reason I'm here. After your encounter with the forces that are the Decepticons, Prime had us send in a unit to recover any and all the technology and research your team brought. While most of the Energon was mined out crudely and the battlefield was clear of Cons, we were able to collect most of the equipment, all of the research, and the bodies of your soldiers. Well, what was left."
"What was left?" Gill said, confused and worried about what the agent just said.
"While most of the bodies were intact, some were crushed to a pulp, and others were torn to pieces." This made Gill physically sick, like she was on the verge of throwing up sick. And her brother was one of those bodies.
"Oh brothers..." Gill said, having to turn away while covering her mouth. "Oh gods..."
"We made sure to put them in body bags and asked Ratchet to send word to your people." Fowler said, walking up to the Sergeant and placing his hand on her shoulder. before anymore was said, the Ground Bridge opened up, causing some of the able bodied soldiers to get up, drew their weapons, and create a perimitor around the frame, this included the Sergeant.
"Hold fast! We don't know what Prime and the others will bring back!" Gill said, using a Mark II Z-1 Bow. While it was as durable as the Mark III, it lacked the ability to use Dust tipped arrows, but Gill's Semblance lets her infused magical properties into the arrows regardless of Dust, so it evened out. This time she used acid as it worked best on the metal armor. While she and her soldiers held firm, Prime came rushing in with Bulkhead, Arcee, Bumblebee, two boys, a teenager and a preteen, and Lapis.... Lapis?
"The Princess?" One of the soldiers said as they watched her fire several laser bolts from her pistol back into the portal shortly before it closed, leaving what ever was on the other side of the Ground Bridge in the dust.
"Optimus." Ratchet said, still in his vehicle form and preforming the last surgery of the day. "You're back, and you have guests."
"How the fuck did you get the Princess of our Kingdom with you?!" Gill said, taking her aim at Prime, as did her troops.
"oh shit..." Lapis said, realizing that they must not have heard about the trial.
"We were told of her arrival here, and how she can be useful to our fight against Megatron." Prime said, causing some of the soldiers to look at each other with confusion.
"Who told you?!" Gill said, keeping her bow drawn.
"My mother." Lapis spoke up, walking up to the Sergeant. "I was sent her by the Queen to help them, as well as redeem myself."
"What?" Gill said, confused as she lowered her bow and eased up on the arrow. This queued the others to do so as well. "What are you talking about?"
"I can't explain everything now, but it will be when you return to the capital."
"The capital? Why would we return there?"
"Because with everything I was sent with, I found a note for Lieutenant Waterdeep, but I'm guessing he's either missing or dead given the fact that these guys are following your lead." The soldiers around both the Sergeant and the former Princess looked at each other with somber expressions, some still feeling the wounds of what happened. "I see...." Lapis then took out the note out of her bag and handed to Gill. She was hesitate to read it, but it did bare the queen's emblem on the front, so she kinda had no choice but to read it. After opening it, she started to read through the contents of the note.
Baldur Platoon, your standing orders are to return to the Capital with all the information regarding Operation 115 and any personal knowing of this are to be detained and debriefed on the situation. If necessary, leave a squad to protect our assets in the Realm undercover. Discretion is top priority during this as the Elders can not know of our other realmly activities.
"What about you?" Gill said after reading the note.
"I have to stay here and help these guys." Lapis said, having holstered her laser pistol. "It's the only way I can get redeem. Like I need it"
"As you wish." Gill said, bowing before the former Princess and signaling her troops to stand down.
"I assume introductions are in order." Agent Fowler said, having stand on the sidelines as the two Hawthorians were conversing.
"You first chubs." Lapis said, clearly poking at the fact that he's not in the best shape.
"Princess?!" Gill said, concerned and not surprised that she targeted his obviously weak quality.
"That's Agent Fowler to you, Lapis Lazuli." This shocked everyone in the room, other then Prime.
"How the fuck do all of you know my name!?" Lapis said, ready to pull her pistol out on Fowler.
"You didn't tell her, did you Prime?" Fowler said, looking at the leader of the Autobots with annoyance.
"The Decepticons were on us before I could explain the situation to the Huntress." Prime said, confusing Lapis again.
"Good god..." Fowler said, pinching the bridge of his nose in disappointment before looking at Lapis once more. "We got contacted by an organization called Fulcrum. They warned us about you coming here and recruited one of the Bots into their ranks. Though due to the secrecy of the organization, no one here knows who it is."
"That's just protocol Agent." Lapis said, crossing her arms and looking at the man with annoyance of her own. "If anyone was captured, they can't exposed the agent to the enemy, even if they were probed with Psionics."
"With what?" Fowler said, confused.
"nevermind..." Lapis said, before Gill's commlink went off. This was confusing as they haven't had time to connect to a comms system that could cross realms. Without much other choice, Gill answered the call.
"Master Sergeant Lavender, this is Prince Viridian. Lapis is a traitor to the Hawthorne Kingdom and is considered armed and dangerous. If you or your troops comes into contact with the traitor, she is to be shot on sight under Directive 5-A23. Any of the queen's orders regarding Lapis should be ignore with the issue of this directive." With that, the transmission ended, leaving the Sergeant with a choice to make. Her soldiers did look at her for an answer, and they got one.
"You heard the Prince." Gill said, drawing her arrow and taking aim at the former Princess. "Kill her!" All the soldiers did the same as her, all the while the Autobots had no clue what Directive 5-A23 was, nor what to do about the situation. But it didn't stop Lapis from drawing her sword. Then all of a sudden, the soldiers were shoved back with the wind, flown into walls, consoles, and even Ratchet. Lapis turned back to find what caused this, only to find the teenager with his hands thrusted forward and baring a look of confusion and amazement.
"He's a Jedi!" One of the injured called out, trying to stand on their own.
"Kill them!" Gill said, getting back up and drawing an arrow on the teenager, imbuing it with fire before letting loose on him. In his shook and confusion, he didn't react fast enough to dodge the arrow, but Lapis did, taking the hit for him in her left shoulder and being engulfed by fire.
"Stand down!" Prime said as he and the other Autobots drew their weapons on the Hawthorne soldiers. Their response was the discharge of their weapons, starting a small battle in Autobot base. During this, Lapis was able to use the Force to extinguish the flames before they could do any serious damage, but she would have some scars to show for it. As the battle raged on, Prime ordered Bumblebee and Arcee to get Lapis and the two boys out of the base while they dealt with the Hawthorians. Within moments, Arcee and Bumblebee transformed into their vehicle forms with the ladder opening his car door. Without hesitation, Lapis and the teenager hopped onto Arcee while the preteen hopped into Bumblebee. The second they were onboard, Arcee and Bee took off towards the hidden door of the base, leaving Prime and Bulkhead to subdue the Hawthorians with Fowler helping by calling reinforcements to the base while Ratchet tried to defuse the situation.
Meanwhile, the scientists were in a the Autobots gifted them so they can continue their work on the crystals, even through all the laser and plasma fire.
"Did they start something?"
"Yes."
"Should we do something?"
"Probably not."
"So... we just bury our noses in work and forget about it?"
"Yep."