Written by DBX
During the war against Megatron, I was a Major. Like most officers, I had to lead my own squad of twenty soldiers. Our first missions were offensives, hunting down Megatron and trying to destroy him. When the reality of the situation hit us, we were reassigned to defense protecting civilians and trying to prevent any more property damage. I lost a few soldiers during our first assignments, then my second-in command, a lieutenant was taken away for a "special mission", some weapon the Council's scientists had been working on. They thought it would destroy Megatron, they were wrong. With my second in command gone, another lieutenant was assigned to my squad, Lieutenant Griever. He was brash, bull-headed and insubordinate. On the other hand he was a dedicated soldier, we just had different ideas about how a war should be carried out.Our first mission with Griever on the squad was a difficult one. Megatron was trying to break into one of the archives, probably trying to download some information that wouldn't normally be available to citizens. Given how dangerous he was, none of us wanted to let Megatron gain any more power or knowledge. Our mission objectives were to defend the archives and if at all possible, capture Megatron. Griever didn't like the orders one bit,
"Capture Megatron!? And what cell would hold him? Our mission should be an all-out assault, destroy him while we have the chance." Griever had said. I told him that it wouldn't be that easy and if it was they would have done it already,
"It's a simple, they just haven't done it right."
"What do you mean?" I questioned,
"It's a simple enough equation. Our weapons have no effect on him, that's why we have to use something larger scale. There's an old Earth strategy called 'scorched earth'." I was familiar with it, a place like the archives would be rigged to explode destroying the building and Megatron with it. The concept of "collateral damage". I called the idea barbaric, Griever simply replied that it was no more barbaric that what Megatron had already done,
"Kill your enemy before they kill you." Megatron didn't attack that day but I was still bothered by Griever's callous attitude.
After several more missions, I received my final assignment from the Council, I was to escort civilians off of the planet. At that time I thought I would be making a return trip, but it wasn't to be. I wouldn't return until the end of the war. I still remember my last conversation with Griever the day I shipped out. He had a look of utter contempt on his face as he told me simply,
"Go ahead, take the cowards away. Someone has to stay and fight the war." I tried to say something but I knew nothing I could say would change his attitude. It was the last time I saw him until the Autobots and I found Iacon. Griever had been reformatted but he had changed a lot more than that. During the battle I had been weakened by Nightscream's energy drain. Griever took advantage of that I tried to attack me with an energon sword, if DinobotX hadn't stepped in Griever would have destroyed me. In stopping him, DinobotX had badly wounded Griever and now we were trying to help him recover while hiding out from the Maximals,
"I don't know about this. I know you guys feel responsible about this guy getting hurt but he's still one of the bad guys." Nightwolf said, "He could lead the Maximals right to us."
"How? Techno-Organics don't have onboard computers, communicators or tracking devices." Prime said. Griever looked different from the last time we met but I knew it was him. Rhinox was treating his wounds. I asked Rhinox how he was doing,
"I don't know much about Techno-Organic physiology but I don't think he's hurt too seriously. He's already begun to heal." Rhinox said, "How do you know him?"
"We were once friends." I answered.
"We were never friends Major." Griever said. He had regained consciousness but I didn't know when. He could have been listening to us for the last hour trying to gather information. I knelt down beside of him,
"You've changed." I said.
"War and Reformatting will do that to you." he said smugly.
"I wasn't talking about your appearance."
"Neither was I." I wasn't sure if he would try to attack us if he had the strength, maybe I could talk him out of the inevitable fight, "So, not only do you sympathize with the enemy, now you join them?"
"That depends on your definition of the enemy."
"The enemy is anyone who's going to get you killed, no matter what side he's on. I suppose during the war, you would have been considered my enemy."
What he was talking about was one of our final missions before I shipped out. Megatron had started using drones to do his dirty work for him, he had already taken part of the city and we were trying to defend what was left. My squad was ordered to the front lines, outside of the barricade and in the open. There were fifteen of us, we were badly outnumbered. Megatron was sending in his tank drones, each of them took almost four times more damage than a normal Cybertronian, it was going to be a long and tough battle. After half and hour of fighting, the drones had advanced and my troops weren't doing well. We had lost four and the rest of us had taken heavy damage. We had no choice left but to use our trump card, an EMP generator. One electro magnetic pulse could take out an entire army if it was strong enough, but we had to get away. I ordered everyone back to the line while I drove into the crowd of tanks with the EMP bomb. I got to the middle of them and fired a shot at a drone destroying its optic sensors. Because it was minor damage, the tank drone went to repair mode. I quickly attached the EMP bomb to it and set it for one minute. Just enough time to get clear. I went back to vehicle mode and drove through the crowd of tanks firing at a few to clear the way. Once I was back to the others I heard Griever shouting something about leaving someone behind. I saw where he was pointing, a damaged but still functioning bot was leaning against a wall and shooting at the tank drones. He was in the range of the EMP. There was nothing I could do, there wasn't enough time to go back for him. I reluctantly turned back to the others but Griever suddenly pushed past me with his weapon drawn. He fired at the bot taking him offline, I was too shocked to ask what he was doing. Then the EMP weapon discharge sending a wave of energy in all directions, shutting down all of the tank drones and stopping just before it reached us. Once it cleared everyone showed relief but I was angry with Griever, he had killed a fellow soldier. Before I could yell at him, I noticed the same soldier in the distance, slowly climbing to his feet. He was badly damaged both from the drones and from Griever's attack but he was alive. I ordered to others to go and help get him to an R-Chamber. I questioned Griever.
"EMP pulses work both ways. If their target is online, it goes offline. But if its offline, it comes back online. He's damaged but at least we have enough time to save him." he said.
"I thought you killed him."
"No, I didn't kill him. I saved him from you." Griever said.
"I didn't know! I couldn't have!" I said.
"You should have." I wasn't sure who I was angry at, Griever for taking such a serious risk or at myself for making a mistake. What made it worse was finding out that after all of that the soldier still didn't make it. I couldn't shake the feeling that I had killed him.
"You abandoned all of us just like you abandoned that soldier during the EMP shockwave! Megatron slaughtered hundreds! And what ones he didn't kill, he took their souls! I was in the drenches when a drone came by and ripped my spark right out of my shell! They put me, they put all of us in a glass jar! They locked us up, giving us a fate worse than death! All the while you were off on some cozy civilian mission!" Griever shouted.
"Those were my orders! There's nothing I can do to change that now, every day I regret leaving Cybertron, but it's what I had to do!" I felt sincere, but I knew my words lacked the power to convince him.
"So what is it now? Clinging to your technology?" Griever asked.
"It's different than that Griever, you don't know what Destron has done." I said, "You're on the wrong side."
"I'm not the one trying to fight an entire planet. You're fighting your own kind."
"What if I could show you proof?"
"I doubt that you could." Griever said, "But I have to know, proof of what?"
"We haven't killed anyone, but Destron has."
"Impossible. Destron is trying to change the planet, he wants to make it a better place for Cybertronians. He's not trying to kill them."
"He's trying to make them totally organic right?" I said, "And that's how he's killing them."
"Ballistic, I've got that recording if you want to show him." Nightwolf said indicating the view screen on his wrist he used for a communicator, "The data files too."
"Alright, show him." I said. Griever humored us my looking at the recording and the files. It took only a few minutes, Griever seemed to take it pretty well considering he was learning that everything he had ever been told was a lie. I didn't know what to expect. Anger, resentment, bitterness, shock but there was one thing I didn't expect from him and that was the one thing he showed. Denial.
"Those records have been falsified." he said.
"Oh come on!" Nightwolf shouted angrily, "It's right there in black and white! You know the history, Cybertronians have been disappearing for months! Destron's trying to create a pure organic Transformer just like Noble. We even saw Noble there, or what's left of him. And you're telling me you think it's all bogus?!"
"Let it go Nightwolf, the only thing that can change Griever's mind is Griever."
"You and your friends should leave. My comrades will come looking for me." Griever said, "I'm grateful to you for saving my life so I'll spare yours for now. Leave here."
"Griever-"
"No." he interrupted, "Leave me here and get out of this city before they return. Because when they do, they wont hesitate to destroy you."
"Alright, but someday you're going to have to put aside your loyalty to Destron and focus on what's really at stake. You know the truth, you just have to accept it." he didn't answer, he just turned his head away while we left.
We didn't get very far before running into Techno-Organics. The three Predacons we had fought earlier, Razor, Shadowclaw and Scorpio were waiting for us,
"No more of your tricks!" Scorpio said, "It ends now!" Shadowclaw threw some kind of orb at us, it was a pulse bomb. We ran out of the way just in time before it exploded,
"You rotten hypocrites! You're using tech?!" Nightwolf said.
"They're fanatics, no one said they had to stick to their principles." DinobotX said. The Preds were carrying other weapons as well, all of which were tech. Anti-tank guns, pulse bombs and rifles, they had learned something after the last battle. A standoff began, both side had their weapons drawn but none of us fired. Then we heard footsteps, I glanced over to see Griever approaching,
"Griever! You're alive!" Razor said, "What happened!?"
"These cowards caught me off guard with a cheap shot." Griever said, "I'm lucky I survived." he walked around behind the Predacons taking a rifle.
"Good to have you back, now lend a hand." Razor said.
"Sure."
"You take care of Ballistic and the raptor. We'll take care of the rest."
"Actually, I'm not here to lend you a hand." Griever said.
"What?!" Razor demanded but before he could turn around Griever hit him in the back of the head with the butt of his rifle knocking him out. Scorpio and Shadowclaw reacted quickly but Griever shot both of them with the rifle stunning them. DinobotX and Nightwolf were still on guard ready to attack Griever,
"I wont attack you." Griever said.
"Stand down." Prime told us all.
"Are you sure about that? I don't trust this guy." Nightwolf said.
"I trust him." I said. Griever was always a bot of his word, he wasn't lying to us.
"I'll lead you out of Iacon, there's a passage that goes to the surface and into the warehouse district of Cybertropolis. There should be somewhere you can hide there."
"Why are you helping us?" Rhinox asked.
"Because you helped me when you could have left me to die. And that makes me inclined to believe that data you showed me is real. I want to help."
True to his word, Griever led us out of Iacon and to the surface. There were no patrols nearby so our escape was clear when we made it to the surface. Griever instructed us on where to go,
"About a block from here on this level is a factory Megatron used to build drones. It's abandoned so you should be safe there." Griever said,"What about you?" Nightwolf asked, "You can't go back after what you did."
"I know."
"Why don't you join us?" I suggested.
"I'm not ready to join you yet, but I will help your cause. I just have to do it my way."
"Are you sure you don't want help?" I asked.
"You have your own path. Like I once said, someone has to fight the war. That someone is you." then he turned and walked in the opposite direction.
Griever and I were nothing alike but we did have a common link, and that was protecting Cybertron. I can't blame him for what he did, he thought he really was protecting Cybertron but now he knows the truth. Four years ago, I ran away from a fight and now I had a chance to change that. We couldn't save Cybertron in a day, but if Griever was any indication, it could be done.
