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wyntir_knightTitle: The Devil You Know
Series: G1 universe, focusing on Original characters
Rating: R
Summary: In the early days of the civil war on Cybertron, Sentinel Prime authorized several refugee vessels to take Neutrals away from the planet in hopes that they could start peaceful colonies where they would be safe. Many of these refugees were never heard from again; lost to us through time and distance. But history does record the fate of one of the vessels. The Stormchaser was three orns away from its destination when it was shot down by Decepticons in an act of cowardice and deceit. There were no survivors. That is what history tells us. But in this case, history is wrong.
Author's Note: Still Day 17. I didn't get as much done as I had hoped, but I have to admit that I may have been a tad over ambitious. Still, I'm on schedule and on time, and getting into the bits of the story where it'll start getting really interesting. Well, at least as far as I'm concerned.
28873 / 50000 words. 58% done!
Chapter 12
The Neutrals followed Windsaber through the woods in silence. From her place near the back of the line Arclight could see that the colonists were putting up a brave face but they were fading quickly. Between the fear and the damage they had sustained in the crash, their energy levels were far too low for them to be running on such a forced march. As she watched she saw a small green femme stumble slightly. Her fall was stopped as the larger blue and purple mech caught her by the shoulders and steadied her. Arclight watched Diode and Breakstep walked, his arm held around her shoulders tightly. Judging by the angles of their heads, tilted toward each other, they were speaking quietly on a private channel. Arclight wondered if they had been together before the crash or if she was seeing two bots drawn together through mutual tragedy. Either way, it was good to see something good coming out of all this.
“May we speak?” Updraft asked over a secure channel.
“About?” Arclight asked.
“I … I just wanted to know if you’re okay,” he asked as he guided her around a large stump.
“No offence, but, why do you care?” Arclight asked.
“I just … Windsaber went too far,” Updraft replied. “He shouldn’t have taken his anger out on you. He’s not normally so angry.”
“You’ll excuse me if I find that a little hard to believe,” Arclight said. “He and his trine attacked me on the Stormchaser.”
“I didn’t know that,” Updraft said. “They were supposed to find the weapons cache.”
“All of you keep talking about that,” Arclight said. “I’ll admit that I have no love for the Autobots or the Prime. But I find it hard to believe that Sentinel would put the lives of a thousand bots in danger.”
“I guess that he felt that the potential good outweighed the potential sacrifice,” Updraft replied, reasonable.
“No sacrifice is ever reasonable,” Arclight replied bitterly.
“I think that’s why there aren’t any medics in the Decepticon troops,” Updraft replied. “You’re all far too idealistic.”
“And here I thought that it was because you Decepticons keep on killing us,” Arclight replied.
Suddenly the line of Neutrals slowed to a stop.
“We halt here,” Windsaber called. “You have an orn to rest. Updraft! Get up here and set up the energon converter.”
“I’ll be right back,” Updraft whispered out loud. “Waverunner, can you watch both of them?” he asked as he turned to the Neutral.
“Of course,” Waverunner replied sharply.
Arclight sat down next to Cobalt, the exhaustion of the long forced march finally taking over.
“Did you have fun talking with the Decepticon?” Cobalt asked.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Arclight replied refusing to look at the Autobot.
“Yeah, right,” Cobalt muttered.
Arclight continued to ignore the Autobot, hoping that he would stop talking to him. It didn’t work.
“You know, I can tell when people are communicating on a secure channel,” he said. “Your body language changes. Isn’t that right, Waverunner?”
“You’re not supposed to be talking,” the Neutral replied, as he poked the Autobot with the muzzle of his rifle.
“Yeah, but you’re not going to stop me, are you?” Cobalt asked. “You’re not so totally enthralled by the Decepticons. At least not yet.”
“They are certainly doing a better job than you were,” Waveruner retorted. “At least they don’t expect us to fight.”
“Yeah,” Cobalt laughed. “That’s why you’re carrying a gun and guarding prisoners.”
“Don’t tell me that you wouldn’t have done the same,” Waverunner said.
“I most certainly would not have,” Cobalt sniffed. “There wouldn’t have been any prisoners around to guard.”
“Yeah, that’s what I figured,” Waverunner replied. “Now both of you keep quiet.”
“Knock knock,” Cobalt said on a secure channel.
Arclight turned away and put up a firewall to his communication.
“Fine, you don’t want to talk with me,” he said over the channel. “But I want to talk to you and you are going to listen.”
Arclight stood and moved to walk away, but stopped when she heard Waverunner’s gun cock and come to bear on her.
“Sit down,” Waverunner ordered.
“See?” Cobalt said smugly. “Even Waverunner wants you to listen to me.”
“That is most certainly not what he wants,” Arclight retorted, dropping her firewall.
“I knew you could hear me,” Cobalt said. “Now I want you to listen to me very carefully. No good will come from this alliance with the Decepticons. Windsaber will only keep the Neutrals around until they are of no further use to him.”
“And you would have me believe that you have no plans for the Neutrals,” Arclight said. “That as soon as we reached the ship you would just let them go. You’ll excuse me if I don’t believe you.”
“I really don’t care what you believe of me,” Cobalt replied. “What I care about is that you fully understand what it is that those Decepticons have planned. Their kind may put on a shiny faceplate, but underneath they are all rusted through. Believe me when I say that when they have what they want, they will execute the Neutrals ruthlessly and efficiently. There will be no mercy.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt that,” Arclight replied. “But I also don’t doubt that you have exactly the same plans. Now leave me alone.”
Arclight put her firewall back up and turned away, refusing to acknowledge any further communications from the Autobot.
The rest of the orn passed in silence, broken only by a quick break for fuel.
“All right, get up. All of you. We leave immediately,” Windsaber ordered.
In silence, the group stood and continued their march through the woods. If it had turned out that they were moving in circles, Arclight would not have been surprised. It didn’t take long for her to become completely turned around. Every tree looked like all the others, and she was sure they had passed the same rock formation four times already.
“We’re still on track,” Updraft whispered into Arclight’s audio.
“Thanks,” she whispered.
She wouldn’t have thought that the word of a Decepticon would have made any difference, but somehow the reassurance made her feel better. At least until she saw Cobalt rolling his optics in disgust. She ignored him, determined not to let the Autobot get to her.
The march continued in silence with a few more breaks for fuel, but they did nothing to actually allow for any rest. As they marched, the Neutrals were fading until finally they were like the walking spark-less, mindless automatons simply putting one foot in front of the other.
“Updraft?” Arclight asked over the secure line.
“Yes?” he answered.
“Do you think that you’d be able to talk Windsaber into allowing a proper break?” she asked. “These people can’t keep going like this. I’m worried that they’re going to be walked to death.”
“I … I’ll see what I can do,” Updraft replied. “I’ll talk to him at the next break, but I don’t really have much standing with him. I’m really just a pilot.”
“Thank you. I’d appreciate anything you could manage,” Arclight replied.
It turned out that the discussion was unneeded. They had only walked a few more klicks before the trees began to thin out and suddenly they found themselves in another clearing.
“Sweet Primus!” Arclight whispered as she surveyed the devastation before her.
The clearing was not natural. It was the burned out hole created by the large section of the Stormchaser as it had crashed into the woods. The ship rose out of the earth like a broken mountain, blackened and smouldering. All around were the bodies of mechs and femmes, all deactivated and cold.
The Neutrals stood silent and in shock, in complete disbelief of the carnage before them. Updraft came to stand next to Arclight. He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered.
“What happened here?” Windsaber demanded.
He turned and walked up to Arclight.
“Check them,” he ordered. “I need to know that it was the crash that killed them.”
Without waiting for her reply he turned to the other Neutrals.
“I know that this is a tragedy, but we need to remain focused on the living. I want all of you to begin to search the wreckage. Look for anything that we can use. Fuel. Medical supplies. Anything.”
“I need my hands,” Arclight whispered to Updraft.
The pilot moved to release her, but was stopped by a sharp word from Windsaber.
“What are you doing?” he demanded.
“I, uhm, she needs to have her hands free if she’s to get any work done,” Updraft explained.
Windsaber paused, looking at them both before nodding and turning away.
“Keep close to her and make sure that she doesn’t try anything stupid,” he said over his shoulder. “Shoot her if she does.”
Updraft smiled in apology before removing Arclight’s bonds. Slowly she began to move among the corpses, keenly aware of both Updraft and Cobalt watching her every move. She stopped by the remains of a green and blue mech. His optics were wide and his faceplate fixed in a look of pure fear.
She closed her optics and considered what she had found. After a moment she was interrupted by a cry from the far side of the clearing.
“Hey!” Obsidian cried. “I found energon!”
“And I think these are medical supplies!” Breakstep said, from the other side of the ship.
The Neutrals all flocked toward Obsidian and Breakstep, digging into the supplies greedily. Windsaber and Waverunner strode toward the group and tried to retain some semblance of order while Cobalt looked on, his whole frame shaking with suppressed laughter.
Arclight and Updraft ignored it all, however. Quietly they moved on to another body, this one a large black and orange mech who looked like he might have once been a miner. Arclight leaned over the body and examined it quickly, finding the same look of stark terror as had been the on the faceplate of the other mech. Each of the dead, one after the other, all looked like they had been petrified at the moment of their deaths.
“What happened to him?” Updraft whispered.
“I don’t know,” she replied as she examined him.
Just as it had been with Strobe, this mech had had his arms and legs ripped off. Looking around, Arclight saw that many of the other bodies were in the same state, with some or all of their limbs removed. Some had been ripped completely in half, others decapitated, and some had been completely ripped to shreds.
“I … I think … I’m not sure, but I think that they survived the crash,” she whispered. “This damage isn’t consistent with a crash.”
“What do you mean?” Updraft asked quietly.
“I think they were attacked, just like we were,” Arclight replied.
“You mean … they survived all that just to be killed here?” Updraft asked, horrified.
“I think so,” she said. “Updraft, we need to get out of here.”
Series: G1 universe, focusing on Original characters
Rating: R
Summary: In the early days of the civil war on Cybertron, Sentinel Prime authorized several refugee vessels to take Neutrals away from the planet in hopes that they could start peaceful colonies where they would be safe. Many of these refugees were never heard from again; lost to us through time and distance. But history does record the fate of one of the vessels. The Stormchaser was three orns away from its destination when it was shot down by Decepticons in an act of cowardice and deceit. There were no survivors. That is what history tells us. But in this case, history is wrong.
Author's Note: Still Day 17. I didn't get as much done as I had hoped, but I have to admit that I may have been a tad over ambitious. Still, I'm on schedule and on time, and getting into the bits of the story where it'll start getting really interesting. Well, at least as far as I'm concerned.
The Neutrals followed Windsaber through the woods in silence. From her place near the back of the line Arclight could see that the colonists were putting up a brave face but they were fading quickly. Between the fear and the damage they had sustained in the crash, their energy levels were far too low for them to be running on such a forced march. As she watched she saw a small green femme stumble slightly. Her fall was stopped as the larger blue and purple mech caught her by the shoulders and steadied her. Arclight watched Diode and Breakstep walked, his arm held around her shoulders tightly. Judging by the angles of their heads, tilted toward each other, they were speaking quietly on a private channel. Arclight wondered if they had been together before the crash or if she was seeing two bots drawn together through mutual tragedy. Either way, it was good to see something good coming out of all this.
“May we speak?” Updraft asked over a secure channel.
“About?” Arclight asked.
“I … I just wanted to know if you’re okay,” he asked as he guided her around a large stump.
“No offence, but, why do you care?” Arclight asked.
“I just … Windsaber went too far,” Updraft replied. “He shouldn’t have taken his anger out on you. He’s not normally so angry.”
“You’ll excuse me if I find that a little hard to believe,” Arclight said. “He and his trine attacked me on the Stormchaser.”
“I didn’t know that,” Updraft said. “They were supposed to find the weapons cache.”
“All of you keep talking about that,” Arclight said. “I’ll admit that I have no love for the Autobots or the Prime. But I find it hard to believe that Sentinel would put the lives of a thousand bots in danger.”
“I guess that he felt that the potential good outweighed the potential sacrifice,” Updraft replied, reasonable.
“No sacrifice is ever reasonable,” Arclight replied bitterly.
“I think that’s why there aren’t any medics in the Decepticon troops,” Updraft replied. “You’re all far too idealistic.”
“And here I thought that it was because you Decepticons keep on killing us,” Arclight replied.
Suddenly the line of Neutrals slowed to a stop.
“We halt here,” Windsaber called. “You have an orn to rest. Updraft! Get up here and set up the energon converter.”
“I’ll be right back,” Updraft whispered out loud. “Waverunner, can you watch both of them?” he asked as he turned to the Neutral.
“Of course,” Waverunner replied sharply.
Arclight sat down next to Cobalt, the exhaustion of the long forced march finally taking over.
“Did you have fun talking with the Decepticon?” Cobalt asked.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Arclight replied refusing to look at the Autobot.
“Yeah, right,” Cobalt muttered.
Arclight continued to ignore the Autobot, hoping that he would stop talking to him. It didn’t work.
“You know, I can tell when people are communicating on a secure channel,” he said. “Your body language changes. Isn’t that right, Waverunner?”
“You’re not supposed to be talking,” the Neutral replied, as he poked the Autobot with the muzzle of his rifle.
“Yeah, but you’re not going to stop me, are you?” Cobalt asked. “You’re not so totally enthralled by the Decepticons. At least not yet.”
“They are certainly doing a better job than you were,” Waveruner retorted. “At least they don’t expect us to fight.”
“Yeah,” Cobalt laughed. “That’s why you’re carrying a gun and guarding prisoners.”
“Don’t tell me that you wouldn’t have done the same,” Waverunner said.
“I most certainly would not have,” Cobalt sniffed. “There wouldn’t have been any prisoners around to guard.”
“Yeah, that’s what I figured,” Waverunner replied. “Now both of you keep quiet.”
“Knock knock,” Cobalt said on a secure channel.
Arclight turned away and put up a firewall to his communication.
“Fine, you don’t want to talk with me,” he said over the channel. “But I want to talk to you and you are going to listen.”
Arclight stood and moved to walk away, but stopped when she heard Waverunner’s gun cock and come to bear on her.
“Sit down,” Waverunner ordered.
“See?” Cobalt said smugly. “Even Waverunner wants you to listen to me.”
“That is most certainly not what he wants,” Arclight retorted, dropping her firewall.
“I knew you could hear me,” Cobalt said. “Now I want you to listen to me very carefully. No good will come from this alliance with the Decepticons. Windsaber will only keep the Neutrals around until they are of no further use to him.”
“And you would have me believe that you have no plans for the Neutrals,” Arclight said. “That as soon as we reached the ship you would just let them go. You’ll excuse me if I don’t believe you.”
“I really don’t care what you believe of me,” Cobalt replied. “What I care about is that you fully understand what it is that those Decepticons have planned. Their kind may put on a shiny faceplate, but underneath they are all rusted through. Believe me when I say that when they have what they want, they will execute the Neutrals ruthlessly and efficiently. There will be no mercy.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt that,” Arclight replied. “But I also don’t doubt that you have exactly the same plans. Now leave me alone.”
Arclight put her firewall back up and turned away, refusing to acknowledge any further communications from the Autobot.
The rest of the orn passed in silence, broken only by a quick break for fuel.
“All right, get up. All of you. We leave immediately,” Windsaber ordered.
In silence, the group stood and continued their march through the woods. If it had turned out that they were moving in circles, Arclight would not have been surprised. It didn’t take long for her to become completely turned around. Every tree looked like all the others, and she was sure they had passed the same rock formation four times already.
“We’re still on track,” Updraft whispered into Arclight’s audio.
“Thanks,” she whispered.
She wouldn’t have thought that the word of a Decepticon would have made any difference, but somehow the reassurance made her feel better. At least until she saw Cobalt rolling his optics in disgust. She ignored him, determined not to let the Autobot get to her.
The march continued in silence with a few more breaks for fuel, but they did nothing to actually allow for any rest. As they marched, the Neutrals were fading until finally they were like the walking spark-less, mindless automatons simply putting one foot in front of the other.
“Updraft?” Arclight asked over the secure line.
“Yes?” he answered.
“Do you think that you’d be able to talk Windsaber into allowing a proper break?” she asked. “These people can’t keep going like this. I’m worried that they’re going to be walked to death.”
“I … I’ll see what I can do,” Updraft replied. “I’ll talk to him at the next break, but I don’t really have much standing with him. I’m really just a pilot.”
“Thank you. I’d appreciate anything you could manage,” Arclight replied.
It turned out that the discussion was unneeded. They had only walked a few more klicks before the trees began to thin out and suddenly they found themselves in another clearing.
“Sweet Primus!” Arclight whispered as she surveyed the devastation before her.
The clearing was not natural. It was the burned out hole created by the large section of the Stormchaser as it had crashed into the woods. The ship rose out of the earth like a broken mountain, blackened and smouldering. All around were the bodies of mechs and femmes, all deactivated and cold.
The Neutrals stood silent and in shock, in complete disbelief of the carnage before them. Updraft came to stand next to Arclight. He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered.
“What happened here?” Windsaber demanded.
He turned and walked up to Arclight.
“Check them,” he ordered. “I need to know that it was the crash that killed them.”
Without waiting for her reply he turned to the other Neutrals.
“I know that this is a tragedy, but we need to remain focused on the living. I want all of you to begin to search the wreckage. Look for anything that we can use. Fuel. Medical supplies. Anything.”
“I need my hands,” Arclight whispered to Updraft.
The pilot moved to release her, but was stopped by a sharp word from Windsaber.
“What are you doing?” he demanded.
“I, uhm, she needs to have her hands free if she’s to get any work done,” Updraft explained.
Windsaber paused, looking at them both before nodding and turning away.
“Keep close to her and make sure that she doesn’t try anything stupid,” he said over his shoulder. “Shoot her if she does.”
Updraft smiled in apology before removing Arclight’s bonds. Slowly she began to move among the corpses, keenly aware of both Updraft and Cobalt watching her every move. She stopped by the remains of a green and blue mech. His optics were wide and his faceplate fixed in a look of pure fear.
She closed her optics and considered what she had found. After a moment she was interrupted by a cry from the far side of the clearing.
“Hey!” Obsidian cried. “I found energon!”
“And I think these are medical supplies!” Breakstep said, from the other side of the ship.
The Neutrals all flocked toward Obsidian and Breakstep, digging into the supplies greedily. Windsaber and Waverunner strode toward the group and tried to retain some semblance of order while Cobalt looked on, his whole frame shaking with suppressed laughter.
Arclight and Updraft ignored it all, however. Quietly they moved on to another body, this one a large black and orange mech who looked like he might have once been a miner. Arclight leaned over the body and examined it quickly, finding the same look of stark terror as had been the on the faceplate of the other mech. Each of the dead, one after the other, all looked like they had been petrified at the moment of their deaths.
“What happened to him?” Updraft whispered.
“I don’t know,” she replied as she examined him.
Just as it had been with Strobe, this mech had had his arms and legs ripped off. Looking around, Arclight saw that many of the other bodies were in the same state, with some or all of their limbs removed. Some had been ripped completely in half, others decapitated, and some had been completely ripped to shreds.
“I … I think … I’m not sure, but I think that they survived the crash,” she whispered. “This damage isn’t consistent with a crash.”
“What do you mean?” Updraft asked quietly.
“I think they were attacked, just like we were,” Arclight replied.
“You mean … they survived all that just to be killed here?” Updraft asked, horrified.
“I think so,” she said. “Updraft, we need to get out of here.”
