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"Well, this went to hell faster than we expected," Jensen muttered after Bulkhead followed everyone else into Knockout's lab and closed the door.

Bulkhead rammed his fist into the control panel beside the door. The destruction of the controls caused the locking mechanism to slam shut with a boom that shook the floor. He smirked and backed away from the door, keeping his gun ready. He was still getting used to the scaled-up rifles, shotguns, and other weapons built in the labs of the Groom Lake base, but with Team Prime's energon reserves depleted, none of them could waste a single drop for their built-in blasters. They'd need all of what they had left just to keep their bodies functioning, unless they managed to swipe some from the Nemesis's stockpiles.

Still, he kind of liked these new guns. The ones he'd chosen--a grenade launcher magnetically clamped to the metal skin on his back, an enormous pistol on his right hip, and a shotgun loaded with 200-millimeter rounds gripped in his hands--suited him perfectly. Big and loud and powerful enough to nearly cut a Vehicon in half. Just the kind of thing that would be on any Wrecker's Christmas list.

In addition to those, the team's human members had their own guns which, while quite small, were just as effective as his, plus grenades and satchel charges enhanced with Ratchet's synthetic energon. They'd be able to raise a lot of hell once the 'Cons started shooting at them.

Something tapped the other side of the wall, to the left of the door--one of the Vehicons pushing the button on the control panel. Jensen, Case, and Dawson glanced around, took cover behind the side panel of a console, and aimed their rifles at the door.

Starscream gibbered and backed away until he bumped into another console.

Bulk activated his comlink. "Hey, Optimus, made any progress yet?"

"We are ready to begin fabricating the parts Arcee needs, but when the machinery starts up, the crew manning the command deck will detect the energy spike. So far, though, no one has come near us."

"Good. We'll keep their attention on us as long as we can."

A shower of sparks pierced the door and zipped downward, leaving a thin, molten gap in the metal as it moved. Starscream shrieked and stumbled along the wall until he tripped over a cable running across the floor.

Dawson arched an eyebrow at him, rolled his eyes, and turned back to the door.

"What was that?" Optimus said. "What is your status?"

"They're cutting through," Starscream said.

"How long do you have?"

"Maybe thirty seconds." Starscream stared at the door and trembled. "This mission sucks."

#

June shook her head. "This guy was in charge of the Decepticons?"

"Yep." Arcee chuckled. "You can see why I'd prefer him running the show instead of Megatron."

"You know I can hear you, right?" Starscream grumbled over the comlink.

"Yeah." Arcee grinned.

"I won't stand here and be insulted when I'm helping you."

"Well, make yourself useful, then," Bulkhead said.

"Fine. I still have limited access to the ship's systems. I'll see what I can do."

"Hurry it up. They're almost through."

"So," Jensen said, "any estimate on the TTM index for today?"

June raised an eyebrow. "TTM?"

"Time-to-Miko." Jack shook his head, but couldn't help grinning as well. "It's only a matter of time before she shows up."

"She's around here, somewhere." Bulkhead sounded worried but also proud.

A sudden, massive clang reverberated through the floor and walls.

"They're in," Jensen said.

"Here we go," Bulkhead muttered, and then the shooting started.

Arcee exchanged a worried glance with Jack. She looked over at Optimus and Bumblebee at the fabricator console. Bee touched one last button and the machine came to life with a deep, rumbling hum.

"Process initiated," Optimus said. "We need only hold the room for a brief time."

"How brief?" Jack said.

"If we are lucky, perhaps ninety minutes."

"Oh, is that all?" Dawson said under his breath.

"I have a lot of parts that need to be replaced." Arcee turned back to the door. "I'm actually surprised his estimate wasn't longer."

"What the hell?" Starscream muttered, his voice nearly drowned out by the rattling of the humans' weapons and the booming of Bulkhead's shotgun.

"What is it?"

"I've managed to take a peek at the Nemesis's navigational data. The ship has left its position and moved beyond Earth orbit."

"Oh, shit." Arcee aimed a horrified look at Jack. "They've taken the ship out of our ground bridge's range. We're trapped here."

#

Through his faceplate, she could see Jack's face turn pale. He shook it off and turned back to the door.

"Starscream, can you get into the nav system and change the ship's course?"

"No, I'm still locked out, but I'll make do with the few systems I do have access to. And I happen to have an idea how to screw with the enemy troops. If nothing else, it should distract them for a few seconds."

Arcee arched a brow plate. "What are you up to?"

"Find something to hang on to, everyone. Things are about to get a little...floaty."

"He's cutting the gravity." Arcee ran a quick check of her Pretender body's systems and found magnetic-field generators in the feet. She activated them a split-second before the artificial gravity cut out. "Been a while since I've had to fight in zero-g."

In the corner of her optic, Jack and June looked around frantically and scrabbled for a handhold. Behind her, two pairs of clanging impacts vibrated the floor as Bee and Optimus engaged their own magnetic footpads. Arcee reached out to catch Jack's hand and pull him back to the floor, and he grabbed his mom's arm to prevent her from floating away.

"Quick note to base," Ashanti grumbled as she kicked off from the floor and zipped up to the console above her head, "our next armor upgrade should include magnetic boots."

"Noted," Mendoza said over the comlink. "Just be sure you turn that ship around and get back here in one piece. I want to have a team to work on upgrades for."

"We'll do our best."

"Good. I've already lost too many friends in this damned-fool war. Don't let me lose the new ones I've made over the last few months." Mendoza paused, as if to pull herself together before she could continue. "There's also the matter of communications lag if the Nemesis doesn't park somewhere."

"Right. A few seconds at first, but it'll be minutes or even hours the farther away from Earth we get."

Jack aimed another alarmed look at Arcee. "That'll be a problem with your Mini-Me."

"Yeah. It'll be useless if I can't get a signal to and from it." And if the ship couldn't be turned back, her whole team could die out here. She kept her mouth shut; there was no point in giving him and June anything else to freak out over, assuming they hadn't already thought of it. "We'll just have to make sure that doesn't happen. Starscream, have you gotten into the nav system yet?"

"I'm working on it! Slipping through these firewalls is a delicate pro--heeeyaaaarrgh!"

Jack grimaced at the piercing shriek and stared at Arcee again. "What the hell was--"

The resounding crash of a huge metal body hitting the floor reverberated through the corridors.

"--that?" Jack turned to stare at the door. "Oh, shit."

"Looks like he run into some nasty intrusion countermeasures," Bulkhead said while blasting away with his shotgun. "He's down."

Arcee's sensors picked up a squad of Vehicons approaching from the far end of the corridor. "Get ready, Jack. Company's coming."

#

"So much for drawing them away from you guys." Bulkhead dropped the last Vehicon with a shotgun blast to the head and turned to glance at the twitching, gibbering Starscream. His proximity sensors pinged and he grumbled, "Wonderful. Just picked up another squad heading in our direction."

"Oh, terrific." Jensen shook his head and pushed away from the console. He rolled slowly in the air, plucked a satchel charge from his backpack, and winged it at the console. It stuck to the panel and he took another from his pack. "Well, how about we give 'em something bigger to worry about?"

"On it." Case kicked off from the floor, caught the edge of another console, and slapped a satchel charge onto it. She flipped over, pushed away, and drifted over to the adjacent panel. She tossed a charge at it, then at the next three, sticking each one before bumping into the wall and pushing herself back.

"That's about all we have time for." Bulkhead stomped over to the door, peeked down the corridor, and fired three rounds from his shotgun. "Go on ahead. I'll cover you."

Jensen grinned and took a grenade from his belt. "See if you can keep their eyes on you. If we can slip past 'em without being spotted, I think we can really fuck their shit up."

"Go for it." Bulkhead grinned, drew his grenade launcher, and aimed it while blasting away with the shotgun in his other hand. One of his shots blew a hole through the nearest 'Con's chest and the others dived back into the open doorways they'd been using as cover. Jensen, Case, and Dawson flitted past him, used his shoulders as a pushing-off point, and drifted back toward the other half of the team. Bulk stepped into the open, using his body to shield the humans, and popped a grenade at the 'Cons.

The human-designed explosive, formidable enough on its own, ignited the synthetic energon Ratchet had added to it, and the blast filled the end of the corridor, washing over the 'Cons and tearing through the open doorways into the rooms beyond. The shockwave knocked him back several steps. He regained his balance, glanced at his launcher, and laughed.

"Whoa."

Another explosion came from behind him and he looked over his shoulder. One of the Vehicons had just had his head blown partially off. Bulk flicked his optics around and found Dawson zipping through the air toward another 'Con. The human flew past the back of his head, flung a synth-en grenade at him, and continued on by.

The grenade plinked down under the Vehicon's collar and detonated. The explosion sheared his neck in half and whipped his head forward. The red glow in his optic strip faded and the body hung in the air, drifting slowly toward the wall.

Bulkhead chuckled. "Nice!" He faced forward again and found the end of the corridor in flames. Several 'Cons were trying to pick themselves up and pull shrapnel out of their bodies. Bulkhead grinned down at the grenade launcher. Where were you all my life?

"Shit!" Case blurted.

Before Bulkhead could turn to see what had happened, his auditory sensors picked up the sound of a Vehicon arm cannon firing--and searing pain ripped through him from back to front. Both weapons slipped from his hands and floated away. His foot magnets failed and he found himself hanging in the air, much like the Vehicon Dawson had just killed.

"Bulkhead!" A human voice. Miko's, he realized as everything began to fade away.

"Heh. There she is," he mumbled.

"Bulk, are you okay? Are--oh, Jesus!"

Okay, that can't be good. He tried to turn his head toward her, but couldn't. And neither can the fact that I can't move.

His head gradually tilted forward and his chest entered the edge of his field of vision. He could barely make out a gaping hole in his chest, the edges molten, droplets of liquefied metal floating away into the air.

He stared at it, utterly confused. What? Vehicon weapons don't pack that much of a punch. Unless they've been upgraded....

"Bulkhead!"

"M...mmmm...Mi...ko..."

He bumped into the wall and drifted slowly back.

His optics closed and everything around him went away.

#

"What the hell are those?"

Jack glanced at his mom and turned in the direction she was staring. His jaw dropped.

"Yeah, what the hell are those?" The two new arrivals didn't look quite like Pretenders and were smaller than the average human. One was chrome and the other black, and both were slim and spiky all over. "Arcee?"

She looked at him, grasped the corner of a monitor and turned herself to face the door. "Those are a couple of Soundwave's pets. The black one's Rumble and the chrome one is Frenzy. Haven't seen them in a few centuries; didn't know they were even on this ship."

Frenzy braced his foot on the edge of the blasted-open door and launched himself into the room. His red optics locked onto Jack and he pointed his arm at the young human. A hatch on his wrist popped up and a small but razor-sharp disc shot through the air.

Jack's heart pounded and he tried to pull himself under cover and aim his EMP rifle at the same time.

Arcee whipped one of her sawed-off shotguns up and blew the disc off course. The suddenly warped blade tumbled through the air and plinked into the ceiling.

"Stay under cover, Jack. I've got this." Arcee flip-cocked the shotgun, pulled the other from her hip, and targeted both 'Cons at the same time. They managed to get off a few shots before she pulled the triggers. She lunged aside and the blades missed her by a fraction of an inch. Rumble and Frenzy twisted and rolled in midair and her own shots barely grazed them.

They pointed their other arms at her and deployed their built-in blasters. She ran across the floor, kicked away, flipped upside-down while cocking her guns, and magnetized her feet to the underside of a nearby console. She kept moving as she fired, and the two 'Cons did the same, zipping through the air, bouncing off a surface, trying to maintain target-lock while firing away.

In the corridor, Jensen chucked a grenade at one of the Vehicons as he drifted through the doorway. Arcee and the two pint-size 'Cons caught his attention as he floated toward Jack.

His grenade blew and the Vehicon's body separated from his head.

Jensen grabbed the edge of the console Jack and his mom had landed on, pulled himself toward them, and whistled softly as Arcee flip-cocked her guns and continued firing.

Rumble hit the ceiling, braced his feet against it, and propelled himself straight at her. She turned her shotguns toward him--and they merely clicked. She clamped them to her hips and grabbed her pistol.

He plowed into her and the gun flew from her hand. She started to tumble, but grasped his shoulders and turned herself around until her feet touched the wall and clamped down.

Rumble extended his arm blades and jabbed one of them at her. She deflected the blow and landed a chop to his neck. The impact knocked him off balance, but his feet remained magnetized to the wall.

Frenzy landed behind her and swiped his own blades at her. She turned and blocked his blows with her left arm while deflecting more of Rumble's attacks with her right.

Jack's heart pounded hard enough to shake his whole body. "Oh, no...."

They traded blows for several more seconds. Finally, Rumble slipped behind Arcee and shoved his blade straight at the back of her head.

The breath caught in Jack's throat. There was no way she could've seen it coming.

She ducked at the last instant and the blade plunged into Frenzy's face. Sparks erupted from the wound, he released a distorted electronic howl, and his body appeared to go limp. His feet remained clamped to the wall.

"Aw, fuck," Rumble growled. He pulled his blade out and the motion jerked Frenzy forward. He continued screaming and twitching, and Jack shuddered.

"Christ, he's still alive."

Rumble swung his blade at Arcee again. She dodged it, wrapped her fingers around his wrist, and yanked him toward her. She released the magnetic clamp on her right foot, braced it against his head, and re-engaged the magnet. Then she pushed while continuing to pull on his arm.

He screamed and tried to dislodge her foot.

Something in his shoulder snapped and he let out a higher-pitched scream. She kept the pressure up.

The shriek of metal tearing somewhere in his neck echoed through the room and he fell silent. His feet parted from the wall and Arcee gave him a casual shove that sent him tumbling slowly through the air. She sneered at Frenzy and hurricane-kicked him across the room.

Jensen grinned at Jack. "Wow. I can see why you wanna fuck her."

"Hey, hey, hey, hey." Jack waggled his finger at him. "Keep your hands off my woman."

Jensen laughed and held his hands up. "Relax, I'm just sayin'."

Jack grinned at Arcee and gave her a thumbs-up as she launched back to him. She floated into his arms and gave him a quick hug before stepping back and reloading her shotguns.

Jack looked around to see how the rest of the battle was going. Ashanti's team continued flitting around while Optimus kept their attention squarely on him. He'd planted himself beside Bumblebee, using his own body as a shield while Bee operated the fabricator, picking off the 'Cons with his enormous rifle whenever he could get a clear shot.

Out in the corridor, more 'Cons blazed away, shooting toward the far end.

Then came a sound that kind of jumped out at Jack. Similar to the typical Vehicon blaster, but...louder, deeper, with more bass. A sound that rattled the walls and floor.

An intense, solid beam lanced past the doorway.

"Bulkhead!" Miko's voice, shrill, panicking. "Bulk, are you okay? Are--oh, Jesus!"

"No," Arcee mumbled. She and Jack traded a horrified glance.

"Bulkhead!" Miko started to cry.

"Bulkhead," Optimus intoned. "What is your status?"

"He's...not moving," Miko sobbed. "He's hurt bad. Unconscious or...or..."

Optimus's eyes widened and his brows shot upward.

"He's still online," Ratchet said. "But you need to hurry."

"We'll clear the road, sir," Ashanti said. "Keep protecting Bee." She pushed away from the ceiling, headed for the two remaining Vehicons, and aimed her anti-tank rifle at the one in front.

"I've got the one in the rear," Case said. She reached the side of a console near the 'Cons, kicked off and shot toward the one she'd claimed. She clutched a grenade in her right hand and waited until she'd come close enough.

The other Vehicon glanced to the right and spotted her. Startled, he twitched backward just as Ashanti pulled the trigger. Her bullet punched through the floor and left the edges of the hole molten and dripping.

The 'Con cocked his hand back and swatted Case out of the air like a fly. The edge of his hand caught the side of her helmet and a sickening crack burst over the comlinks. Her body turned ragdoll and tumbled toward the back of the room.

"Shit!" Lucas Conrad's voice, coming over the comlink from Earth. "Case's bio-readouts just flatlined. I...Christ, she's dead!"

"Are you sure?" Jack glanced at his mom. "Maybe the impact damaged her armor's connection with the base."

She shook her head. Her face had turned almost completely white. "My armor's linked with her diagnostic system. Her heart stopped and she's not breathing, and...fucking hell...her skull was crushed and her brain was severed from her spinal cord. She's gone."

"Motherfucker," Ashanti snarled.

The Vehicon turned toward her and raised his arm cannon.

She whipped her rifle around and fired without taking the time to line up a shot. Her bullet drilled into his forehead and he clamped his hand over the damaged area. He kept trying to aim at Ashanti, but his arm twitched and shook.

She no-scoped him again, and this time the round punched through his optics and exploded deep inside his head. The glow faded from his optics and he floated limp in the air.

Ashanti flipped, braced her feet against the 'Con's shoulder, and pushed off toward the second one. He swung both blasters toward her.

The rest of her team targeted him, as did Optimus and Bee. Arcee pulled the sniper rifle from her back and locked onto the 'Con's head.

All of them opened fire at the same time, blasting chunks off the 'Con's armor, punching through and shredding vital components, and tearing his head apart.

Ashanti bounced off what was left of him, pushed away, and angled herself toward Case's body. She put her arms around it and looked at Optimus. "I don't know if you can do this without shifting into vehicle mode, but--"

"Of course, Colonel." He gently accepted the body from her, opened a compartment in his chest, and eased Case into it. "I will make sure she returns home."

"Thank you, sir." She looked at the doorway. "Please watch Bee's back while he finishes up. The rest of us will check on Bulkhead."

"I..." Miko's voice again. "I see the 'Con who shot him. I've never seen anything like it before. What the fuck is that thing?"

"I'll take a look," Arcee whispered. She sprang across the room and caught the edge of the door. She peeked around--then ducked back with a horrified look on her face. "It's an Insecticon."

"A what?" Jack muttered.

"They're vermin, but they're about a hundred times tougher than any Vehicon." She shook her head. "I thought the few that are left were still on Cybertron, like discarded weapons of mass destruction."

Motion in the corridor caught Jack's attention. A huge, dark shape passed by the opening, easily twice the mass of a Vehicon.

Yeah, it looks like a big bug, alright. He shuddered. Merely seeing it would probably give him nightmares for years to come.

It stopped in the doorway, turned, and stared straight at him. His heart skipped a beat, his lungs seized up, and he almost lost control of his bladder.

"Son of a bitch," Jensen said under his breath. "Can this turn into any more of a pooch-screw?"

Jack glanced at him, but another movement made him look back to the door.

Another massive, metal bug appeared behind the first. And a shadow flitted on the wall behind it.

Moving slowly, Arcee peeked into the corridor, turned and looked to the Insecticons' left, and ducked back into the room.

"Fuck me. There's more of 'em. A lot more."

Jensen sighed. "If they're really as tough as you say, we're all dead."

"Then we go down swinging," Ashanti growled.

"No," Optimus rumbled. "We have a mission to complete, and more importantly, a friend to save, and we will see it through." He checked the ammo in his gun and strode to the center of the room, placing himself in the Insecticons' sights.

"Goddamn right." Jack launched toward Arcee and she grasped his hand to keep him from bouncing off the wall and floating back. He smiled and caressed her cheek. "Like I told Starscream, to save your life, there's nothing I won't do." He aimed his EMP rifle at the nearest Insecticon. "Let's do this."