TFP ESCAPE 24

- How did you manage to silence the comms? - Knockout marveled trailing beside the newly proven leader of the Deceptions as they walked hastily toward the command center. - And the flush? A brilliant stroke.

Starscream cast him a sidelong glance.

- Not my doing - he reluctantly admitted.

- Really? But... - suddenly it dawned on the medic whose doing it may have been. - So what's the plan anyway?

- Full sails on and get the frag as far from here as possible. - came a quick reply.

- But... we've got the ship, why run?

That stopped Starscream dead in his tracks. The seeker turned to the confused AstonMartin:

- Your autobot teammates didn't share much with you, did they? Any reason why I should? - Starscream drawled out and looked at the bright medic a bit more intently:

- ... Ah... you want to claim your former position by my side, am I right?

- I did help you get the ship - Knockout spread his hands palms up as if saying :"you can't argue with that".

Starscream gave him a once over and resumed walking, other eradicons trailing behind at a respectful distance.

- I suppose I don't have much choice. However, if there's one thing I learned from Lord Megatron, may he be one with the Allspark, is that you should never trust your Second. My plans are better kept mine only .

Knockout shrugged and sped up to fall in step with him:

- Well... if we're not sharing, I'll keep my info to myself as well... Since you're certain it cannot affect whatever you have planned...

That earned him a malicious scowl:

- If you wanna be my second, prove me you're worth it.

Knockout thought this over.

- Do I want to be your Second? That actually depends. Is it "be my Second in the war" or "be my Second on a deep space journey" or maybe "be my Second in my graceless stampede".

Starscream grinned: "Be my Second in watching all my enemies perish from a safe distance?"

They reached the bridge and Starscream ordered to gain altitude and hover higher to assess the damage.

While genericons worked on patching up the shields and the lower deck, Knockout watched Starscream try to revive the communications array. In few breems the medic snapped out of his thoughts and offered his help. Between the two of them they managed to restart and recalibrate the array. There still was only static.

The damage report came in and it was worse than expected. Navigation was glitching, something caused shortages along internal fluids circulation - which eventually resulted in a timely emergency cleaner flush, surveillance was down and the stabilizers on the left side appeared to be malfunctioning. Energy lever were spiking and subsiding at random - there was nothing that could cause it.

- Well? Why are you still here and not out there fixing it?!

Embarrassed muffling was all Starscream got in response. The eradicons lacked expertise - they could fix things if they where told where and how to fix. The grey jet turned to Knockout.

- Don't look at me, - the medic said, - My file says "medical", not "engineer" not to mention "communications". Soundwave always tended to the systems himself.

- Never thought I would miss him! He'd better be fixing it than nursing the foolish idea that Prime can beat Unicron! - Starscream hit the nearest console with his fist. Watching him have one of his hissy fits was pleasant for a change. So soothing. An island of normality in the sea of crazy.

- Shockwave, too...Of all his stupid plans... Knockout, it had taken Prime _and Megatron_ combined effort to put Unicron to hybernation last time, and it was barely enough! And they failed eventually. And now, without Megatron, the fools stand no chance!

He was looking at the medic with desperation as though it was vital for him to hear that there was no chance indeed and fleeing was right. Knockout was all up for fleeing, personally. Call it a tactical retreat and you may even feel good about it. It's just...

- Wait... Soundwave? Alive?

- Yes! Yes. He got in touch with Prime from Earth... what are you smiling at?

- There's one technimal on board who will be really glad to hear that.

Starscream looked at him and his faceplate slowly morphed into a grin.

- Get the space bridge boot up. I have the coordinates.

When everything was set and ready, Knockout stole a glance on the control console:

- Isn't that the Harbinger?

- Indeed.
And the grey seeker pressed the button.

***

Bumblebee was the first to perk up from a puddle of purplish cleaner. He looked around - his teammates and foes popped out of the shallow pool  like islands in the seas back on Earth.

The ex-scout rose to his peds and glanced at the decepticon warship. It had probably gained some altitude - if they really had fallen from that height there was no way he got off with as little as a few dents. Not too far from him, Wheeljack stirred.

Bee turned to check on Smokescreen - out of them four, the youngster was in the worst condition. Cons could have easily finished them off while they were lying here offline. They didn't for some reason and Bee felt he shouldn't question their luck before they are in the clear.

Smokescreen's right leg stuck out at an unnatural angle. The young autobot moaned softly - he was coming online responding to the pain alerts. Bumblebee looked around. He wasn't a medic, but he was sure Smokescreen's hip joint didn't look normal. Behind him, Wheeljack coughed liquid out of his vents.

- Well? You gonna fix him or meditate on him, Bee?

- I don't know how - Bumblebee confessed.

- Move aside, then... - Wheeljack knelt beside and started feeling out the joint, - You don't gotta be a medic to recognize a twisted joint. Gotta sort it out fast before en circulation disrupts. Wakey-wakey, little rookie.

Smokescreen's optics onlined and he frowned up at the wrecker:
- Hey what's with the groping?! Cut it out!

- Good. Now you hold'em an' I pull, - the wrecker said to Bumblebee and winked at Smokescreen, - in your dreams, rookie. Three... two... one!

A loud snap accompanied by a loud cry of pain brought the rest of fallen bots and cons online.

- You could have warned me! - Smokescreen protested.

- So what's the plan, chief? - Wheeljack turned to Ultra Magnus as the officer rose to his peds.

- We need to regroup with Optimus, soldier, cons probably attacked them too - came an immediate reply.

Wheeljack jumped to his peds and offered Smokescreen a hand:

- Good thing I fixed the JackHammer then, sir. It's a couple of blocks from here. We needa fuel, but otherwise... - a rattling sound from behind his back got autobots attention.

Eradicons were slow to recover and that worked against them - before they regained their balance and really looked around, they were in the crossfires of four pissed off autobots. Outnumbered.

The wingleader cast a quick glance up to the ship, still hovering above - so close! So out of reach! - and slowly raised his arms above his head. His wing followed his example. They should drag this out long enough to be rescued.

- We surrender! Don't kill us.

- That is not our intention, - Ultra Magnus said before pulling a trigger. Killing the seekers meant Nemesis wouldn't have to slow down to pick them up. But a few more or less serious injuries would maybe win autobots some time.

- Nothing personal, - Bee said, crouching down beside the wingleader, who hissed static and ineffectively tried to get up. His peds gave out - it's hard to maintain your balance with two holes for knee joints. The peds kept snapping under him and he kept falling back, - it's just not your day.

Soon, the autobot vessel sped off toward Kaon, as stealthily and low above the surface as Wheeljack dared to fly it manually because sonars and radars were glitchy. Ultra Magnus tried to get through to Optimus every breem, to no avail so far. Otherwise, they did not speak.

They were already over the Mithric sea when Smokescreen, who was sulking on rearguard monitor duty, suddenly perked up, alert:

- The slag?! We are being followed.