“You know, of course, the Autobots will attempt to effect a rescue?” Snaptrap said to Soundwave.  The two of them were up on the spacedock, watching Nemesis from the giant windows on the observation deck.  Snaptrap was somewhat intimidated to be up here, the only of the Cybertron-bound Council members yet invited aboard the spacedock.  He was unsure whether he should feel honoured, or worried.

      “Of course.  I would expect no less of them.” Soundwave replied, no waver in his monotone.  Snaptrap wondered at the Transformer; he seemed never to show any emotion, never to be anything more than an emotionless warrior.

      “And you would let them get away with it?” Snaptrap said, after a long pause.  He had no idea what to expect from Soundwave now.  The massive vessel he was creating up here would give him unfathomable power, allowing him to hold near-total sway over the Decepticon Empire.

      An even longer pause ensued, as the two watched drones piece together the hull of the massive warship, welding the armour plates onto the frame.  At last, when Snaptrap thought he could stand it no more, Soundwave answered.  “Whether the Autobots rescue this Punch is of no concern to me.  Alive, he can do little to hinder me, and dead he might incite another civil war.”  Something that I alone will control, he thought.  After all, there was no point in allowing others to dictate your movements to you, when it is possible to make them dance to your tune.

     “You surprise me, Soundwave.” Snaptrap responded, not taking his eyes off the ship outside.  “Most Decepticons would never even consider letting an Autobot escape, but you are more than willing for him to slip through our fingers.”  He waited again, this time turning to face Soundwave.

     “And what is your purpose is having me up here, Soundwave?  Surely you do not wish to share your power.” he said.  It was a good question, one that had been nagging at him since he came up here.  There was really no reason he could think of.

     “I have brought you here, Snaptrap, because I wanted to.” Soundwave replied.  This, he knew, was not what Snaptrap had wanted to hear.  “I think that you might possess the needed talents to aid me in my plans.  And of course, you would be well rewarded for your troubles.” he added.  Most Decepticons worked better, and with more loyalty, when there was a personal reward in it for them.  Soundwave was well aware of this, of course, and fully willing to exploit it.

     “I expected as much.” Snaptrap responded.  “And, now that we have agreed to work together, I think that I should be made aware of your plans.  The ones that affect me directly, of course, and anything else you think I should know about.”  Not that it matters what you think, Snaptrap thought.  I’ll know all your secrets eventually.  And then, I will decide whether to side with your, or with the other two.

     Of course, the one facet of his power that Soundwave had never made public was his ability to ‘read minds’.  By scanning the electrical output of a Transformer’s neural net, he could decipher what that Transformer was thinking of.  He knew that Snaptrap was not to be trusted too much, and that he would have to be handled carefully, for the best return on his efforts.  But such was the price of success in the Decepticon ranks, and he was all too willing to pay that price, when the prize was so lucrative.

     It was dark when Kobal crept from of his post, making sure that there were no bots around to observe him.  Ironhide may have given his consent off the record, but on the record, desertion of duty was a pretty heavy offence.  He only hoped that Chamber had managed to mask their signatures from the bases scanners.  Otherwise, Ironhide and his men would be on them real fast, and Punch would be dead in two days.

     Best not to think about things like that, he thought to himself.  Whatever happened, happened, and there was nothing he could do here to change that.

     But it seemed like Primus was smiling on them, as he made it to the rendezvous site with no problems.  When he got there, he could see Dogfight and Chamber, as well as Warpath and a pair of new bots.

     “Who are you?” he asked, keeping his voice low.  Even out here, there was the chance that a stray voice could give them away.

     The first bot to respond was Backstreet, another Triggerbot.  He and Dogfight were good friends, which wasn’t surprising.  Offering his hand, he introduced himself, and then looked at the second newcomer.

     “I’m Cable.” he said, his voice indicating a pretty laid back attitude.  He was about the same size as the rest of them, except Chamber, which meant he was smaller than most Transformers.  Still, what they lacked in stature, they made up for in firepower.

     “Everybody ready?” Dogfight asked.  The others made one last weapons check before nodding and setting off.  They weren’t that far from Viridia, but they had to stay in robot mode to cut down on the noise.  Which meant that they weren’t exactly rocketing across the terrain.  Still, they made pretty good time, having to stop only a few times.  Once for a rest, and a second time to get the drop on a Decepticon patrol.  That had been a pretty vicious fight, as they had not dared discharge their weapons.  That meant that they were forced to fight close, and few of them were armed for that.

     Chamber and Cable, however, acquitted themselves quite nicely.  The former was able to use his size as a weapon, and the latter wielded a particularly vicious warhammer as a close combat weapon.  Between the two of them, they managed to knock out most of the patrol.  They were careful not to kill any of them, as they didn’t want to be responsible for even more tension then they had to be.

     At last, however, they reached the outskirts of Viridia.  The city was fairly heavily guarded, but nothing like what they had been expecting.  Looking over at Dogfight, Kobal gave voice to what they were all thinking.

     “They had to know someone would be coming.” he whispered.  “What’s with the lax security?”

     “No idea.” Dogfight responded, looking away to check the area.  “Maybe they didn’t think we’d be able to move so fast.  Maybe they’re understaffed here on Cybertron.  You know how hard they’re working on that orbital construction facility.”  He paused again, and turned back with a wry smile on his face.  “Maybe they just don’t care.”

     Kobal had to work hard to keep from laughing at the absurdity.  “Yeah right.  The Decepticons don’t care about guarding an Autobot spy.  What’s next: Unicron coming back?”

     “Well, whatever the reason, we’re not about to look a gift horse in the mouth.  New strategy, though.” he said, counting the guards out there.  After a minute, he turned back to the rest of the group.  “All right, Cable, Chamber and Warpath, you guy’s will be a diversion.  Create havoc, but don’t kill anyone.  Me, Backstreet and Kobal will go in and get Punch.”  The three diversionary members melted away from the group, heading off towards the far side of the city.  For a while, Kobal and the two triggerbots were left alone, waiting.  It wasn’t long before Backstreet and Dogfight lapsed into reminiscences of old times.

     “You remember Cheyenne?” Backstreet asked.  Dogfight nodded.  “Man, that was a close one.  Still, we showed those vampires who was boss, eh?”  Dogfight and Backstreet chuckled for a moment, and Dogfight continued the conversation next.

     “Shame we never found the Matrix, eh Backstreet?  That would’ve been quite the prize to take back to Optimus.”  Kobal, silent up until now, could not help but break in now.

     “You guys really went looking for the Matrix?” he asked.  Though he had heard of the fabled Matrix quest, he hadn’t really paid attention to it in his training.  Which meant that he didn’t know that Dogfight and Backstreet, along with a third Triggerbot named Override, had gone to the planet of Cheyenne in search of the Matrix.  Though they hadn’t been successful, they had learned some things about both themselves and each other.

     Of course, that meant that the two were able to tell him a slightly more adventurous and glamorous story than the history trax recorded.  They did not, however, have time to finish the story.  About five minutes later, a large explosion echoed through the city, lighting up the far sector of the city.  The guards rushed from their posts to find out what had happened, giving Dogfight, Backstreet and Kobal time to get into the city.  Sprinting forward, but being sure to keep low, they slipped into Viridia, heading straight for the prison.  There wasn’t much left to the plan; from here on in, it was all going to be played by ear.

     Punch had been sitting in his cell, pretending to be unconscious, when the explosion happened.  He was doing this because it kept the guards from attacking him or taunting him, and he really didn’t feel like either one right now.  He could not, however, resist finding out what was happening.  Engaging one of his optic sensors, he looked to see what his guards were doing.  Through the hazy green of the forcefield, he could see that one of them had run off, and the other had turned, and was now pointing his weapon at Punch.

     “If you think you’re getting out of here,” he said, his tone giving the distinct impression that not all cylinders were firing, “think again.  I’ll kill you myself if I have to.”  Punch, having nothing to say to the guard, said nothing.  He merely sat and wondered what was happening.

     Had Optimus dispatched a rescue team?  Had full-blown war started again?  Or was an alien race attacking?  There were thousands of possibilities, but he could dismiss most of those as either too farfetched or simply straight out impossible.  That did not, however, answer the only question that really mattered to him right now:

     Would he get out of here alive?

     “There is something very relaxing about a fight.” Chamber rumbled, before bringing his hand down on a Decepticon Military Officer’s face.  “No complicated questions of good and evil.  Just you against them.  Much simpler.”

     Cable had to admit that big guy had a point.  This method of rescuing Punch would be much easier than endless politicking.  Of course, that was if all went well.  If this mission failed, they could easily plunge Cybertron, and Terra, into a third Transformer Civil War.  Further thoughts on the matter, however, were interrupted by a Decepticon leaping onto his back.  Reaching his right arm back, he got a solid grip on his assailant’s head, swinging him over Cable’s shoulder and driving his head into the ground.  The low moans the damaged ‘Con made were proof enough that he was alive, but obviously out the fight for a while.

     Off on Cable’s left, Chamber was busy demolishing the oncoming Decepticons.  Apparently, he had torn someone’s arm off, and was using it as a club, smashing the on-comers and driving them to the ground.  While Cable watched, Chamber brought the arm around in front, crushing one Decepticon’s face, then pivoted and knocked two of them away.  The massive Autobot was a one-bot wrecking crew, and Cable wondered just how much he needed backup.

     Speaking of backup, he wondered how Warpath was doing.  They had sent him out to try and block off almost all of the ways in and out of the area, so that the Decepticons were forced to come on in a single rush.  Charges were easier to break when there were only two or three people rushing straight at you.

     Away from the other two, Warpath was indeed doing what he was supposed to.  He had already sealed off four paths, which left only another three, one of which he would leave open.  Right now, he was moving around in his tank mode, blasting at both buildings and any unlucky Decepticons who happened to stray into his path.

     With an ear shattering boom, his cannon discharged again, the projectile slamming into a nearby building.  As per Dogfight’s instructions, he had checked to make sure the building, at least the majority of it and the area around his target, were empty.  The steel and iron shattered and tore, the side of the building falling into the street and blocking it off pretty effectively.  Though flight-capable Decepticons could still get through, they would be slowed pretty effectively, considering that he collapsed each route several times along.

     At the next target area, however, he was surprised by what he saw.  It looked like Motormaster himself was leading the assault team, and the rest of the Stunticons were around as well.  And powerful as Cable and Chamber were, there was no chance that they could match Menasor, even for an instant.  This was something he would have to take care of himself.

     Carefully, and quietly, he moved into position, his gun turret and the front half of his chassis poking out around the corner of a distant building.  “Good thing my range is so good.” he muttered to himself.  He didn’t want to get any closer to the Decepticons forces out there than this, and even this was a bit too close for comfort.  Still, something had to be done.

     Another earth shaking shockwave accompanied his firing, and he watched as the shell sped forward, the target totally unaware.  It was moving at such a speed that it was, by now, impossible to dodge.  In fact, Dead End never knew what hit him.

     When the shell impacted on Dead End’s back, the Decepticon was killed almost instantly.  Warpath’s shell, specially designed for massive destruction, contained an incredibly minute antimatter charge which reacted with the atmosphere when the field within the shell collapsed.  Dead End was almost totally vaporised, with only small pieces of his chest and head scattered around the area.  The other Decepticons had been stunned by the carnage, but recovered quickly.  Warpath, meanwhile, was making his way back towards Chamber and Cable.  Though it was dangerous, he had to risk a short communication to them.

     “Guys,” he sent, “the shit has hit the fan.”  Far away, Chamber and Cable knew what he meant: overwhelming Decepticon forces were on their way.  Soon, they’d have to retreat, and leave Dogfight, Backstreet and Kobal on their own.