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"Come on, buddy, hang in there." Miko sobbed and struggled to see through the tears obscuring her vision. She scrabbled for a handhold on Bulkhead's enormous body, found one, and grasped the edge of the doorway to Knockout's lab. She pulled, the lack of gravity and the servos in her armor enabling her to tug her partner through the air. He inched forward and his left shoulder caught on the doorway. She kicked off from the doorway, floated across his chest, and thumped into the far edge of the frame. She put her back to it, braced her boots on his shoulder, and pushed, nudging him ever so slightly away.

Just enough to clear the door frame.

She fumbled for another handhold, couldn't find one, and tried to hold back more tears of frustration. She looked around the lab and found Starscream floating in the air, still out cold. She kicked off from the wall, zipped over to him, and grabbed onto his outstretched hand. She pulled herself along his arm until she reached his shoulder, then she found something to hold on to, cocked her right leg back, and drove it into the side of his head.

"Wake up!" She kicked him again. "Wake up, goddamn it!"

After five more kicks, his optics finally opened and his mouth contorted as it tried to form a word.

"Hhhhhhhh..."

"So glad you could rejoin us!"

"Huh?" He blinked, shook his head, and glanced around. "Well, I'm so sorry I nearly got my brain fried while--"

He saw Bulkhead floating in the doorway and stared for several seconds.

"Oh. What the hell happened to him?"

"He got shot in the back." Miko sniffed and turned away so he wouldn't see her weeping. "Pull him in here so he won't take any more hits."

Starscream arched a brow plate at her, shrugged, and dragged Bulkhead into the lab. Then he took note of the exit wound in Bulk's chest. "That wasn't done by the typical Vehicon blaster."

"It was a new 'Con we'd never seen before. Big, bug-lookin' thing."

"What?" Starscream's optics opened wider and his mouth hung open.

"Arcee called it an Insecticon."

Starscream's expression turned to utter horror. He pulled himself over to the door and peeked into the corridor. He jerked back almost immediately and aimed a panic-stricken look at Miko.

"Fuck!"

"You didn't know they were here?"

"I've kind of been out of the loop for the past few months." He looked at the hole in Bulk's chest again. "Their weapons appear to have been upgraded. That looks like a single shot."

"It was. Happened right in front of me." Tears filled her eyes again.

"They couldn't do that before. It would take several hits to do this kind of damage, even for one of them." His whole body trembled. "Shit."

"Stop panicking." Miko shook her head. "This is your resident mad scientist's lab, right? Well, there's gotta be something in here that can help."

"Uh...er...right, of course."

"So pull yourself together and see if you can find something."

"Yes. Right. Good idea." Still shaking, he floated back to the workbenches and cabinets, and began digging through the gadgets he found there.

Miko drifted back to Bulkhead and put her hand on his forehead as the sounds of blasters and human-built weapons resumed, filling the corridors with a deafening cacophony.

"Hold on, Bulk. We'll get you out of here. Somehow."

#

"Starscream's back online," Rosalina Mendoza said, looking up from the data on her tablet.

"Oh, joy," Ratchet grumbled. He touched controls and stared at the readouts on his monitors. "I'm more concerned with diagnosing Bulkhead at the moment."

Rosalina's tablet beeped again and she accepted the incoming message. She glanced at her husband and said, "Did you get this alert?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry, I was distracted." He picked up his tablet. "Just thinking about Case."

"I know. I liked her." She put her arm around Lucas and was relieved when he didn't flinch. Recent developments had put a strain on their marriage, but he seemed to be coming around. "At least the bastard who did it paid the price."

"That won't bring her back." He sighed and read the message. "Whoa. Hey, Ratchet, here's an interesting development. Seems the Vehicons who surrendered a few months ago know what happened to Case."

"What? How?" Ratchet leaned closer to his console. "Bumblebee, I've finished analyzing Bulkhead's wounds. I'm sending you a list of parts you'll need to manufacture before you leave. And you'll need to get him back here soon."

A series of honks and beeps came through the speaker. Ratchet nodded.

"Good." He turned to arch a brow plate at Lucas and Rosalina and the airmen standing nearby, keeping an eye on Rosalina. "Again, how do the Vehicon prisoners know what's happening on the Nemesis?"

"Looks like a few of them have been keeping in contact with a small faction of Vehicons on the ship. Friends of theirs, I suppose." Rosalina shrugged. "Turns out we may have something of a fifth column on the Nemesis."

"I find that difficult to believe."

"I figured as much." She shrugged again. "I didn't even know about this, but Case was among the people who had regular contact with the prisoners, and some of them grew quite fond of her. One of their counterparts on the Nemesis was sending them updates on the battle, and informed them of Case's death a few minutes ago. They're volunteering to help us."

"Even if I trusted them, the Nemesis is well outside our ground bridge's range."

Rosalina nodded, thought it over, and tapped a message on her tablet. "I'm asking our Vehicons to ask the fifth column for help."

"Ah-ah-ah-ah, hold on just a minute!"

"I know it's a risk, but our team is outnumbered, one's dead, and another is close to it. And they're facing who knows how many Insecticons. They're in real trouble, and they need help."

"Hey," Lucas said. "I know you don't trust her, but I do."

"Oh, well, how wonderful! You trust someone who lied to you about what she was during the entire ten years of your marriage. Fortunately, I'm not that deluded."

"I know what she did! I know she's a former Decepticon who passed herself off as a human. But what the hell was she supposed to do? If she'd told me the truth ten years ago, I would've thought she was an escaped mental patient."

"Lucas, it's okay. I don't blame anyone for not trusting me." She touched his shoulder.

"She's still my wife and I trust her, and I love her. If you can't understand that, then I feel sorry for you." He turned away from Ratchet, put his arms around her, and just held her.

"Thanks, babe," she said softly. She held him gently, all too aware of the fragile nature of his flesh under her metal arms and hands, but delighting in it at the same time. It had been several months since the last time they had shared an embrace.

"Alright," Ratchet grumbled, "maybe you're right. But that doesn't mean I'm willing to trust this 'fifth column' of yours yet."

"In case you've never noticed, Megatron treats the Vehicons like shit. Like they're not even sentient beings. He never gave a damn how many of them died, as long as the objective was completed."

"Alright, fine, I have noticed that. Many times." Muttering to himself, Ratchet turned back to his console, and Rosalina sighed.

"Well, the message has already been sent to them." He looked back at her and she held his gaze for several seconds before closing her eyes and focusing for a moment on the man in her arms. "We'll see in a few minutes if I'm right or not."

#

"Whoa!" Arcee flipped forward and flattened herself out, barely avoiding Optimus as he shot through the air beneath her. Once again, for a fleeting moment, she felt like an insect compared to the sizes of the other 'Bots and 'Cons around her. Especially after seeing how easily one of the Vehicons had swatted Tyra Case out of existence. Even though this body was merely an empty shell Arcee was piloting from the base back on Earth and she would survive anything that happened to it, she was all too aware that she would lose any chance of keeping Jack and his mom safe if it were destroyed.

Optimus slammed into the far wall and bounced off. He grasped the edge of a console and held himself in place long enough to get his bearings, and aimed his rifle at the Insecticon who had flung him across the room.

The 'Con snapped up his arm-mounted blaster and fired. The bolt missed him by two feet and drilled into the wall behind him, and Arcee sighed.

They may have heavier armor, but at least we can still jam their targeting systems.

She looked around as she drifted toward the ceiling, trying to keep an eye on every part of the battle. Across the room, Bee tried to operate the controls with one hand and fire at the enemy troops with the other. Optimus blazed away at the Insecticon, his armor-piercing rounds merely scratching and chipping at the huge bug-bot's chest and head. Ashanti's team concentrated their fire on a second Insecticon in the corridor, with little effect.

She found Jack, June, and her medical team as she bumped into the ceiling. She propelled herself toward them, pulling the sniper rifle from her back and lining up a shot on the second Insecticon's optic strip.

The 'Con aimed his blaster at DeeDee. She leaped off the console and zipped through the air--and his gun tracked her across the room.

No... The humans' new armor wouldn't be able to withstand even a single shot from the Insecticon's immensely powerful weapons. She tracked her own gun directly to the center of his optics and squeezed the trigger. Her bullet punched through the less resilient material covering his optic sensors and drilled into his processor, where it delivered its explosive payload. Green flames from the synthetic-energon charge belched out through the entry wound and the Insecticon twitched and thrashed around. It hadn't been enough to kill him, but it had certainly fucked him up.

Double-D gave her a nod as she floated past, and Arcee smiled and nodded back. She reached Jack and he caught her outstretched hand. She placed her feet against the wall and engaged her electromagnets to hold her there.

"Well, one down," Jack said. "Another, what, couple hundred to go?"

"I hope we're ready to pack up and leave before we have to go through all of 'em." She managed to smile at the others. "Might have some good news, though. Back at the base, Mendoza said there's a faction of Vehicons here who might try to help out."

"You trust her?" June said. "Or them?"

"I'm starting to trust Mendoza. The 'fifth column,' though, I'll believe when I see. Still, I've seen how they're treated around here, so it wouldn't surprise me if a few of 'em got sick of it." She activated her comlink. "Bee? Got an ETA on those parts?"

As he replied with a series of honks and whirrs, she turned to check on Optimus and found him pulling his blade out of the Insecticon's face.

"Huh," Jack said. "They're not so tough."

"Don't jinx us, kiddo," June said.

Arcee smirked at Bee's response. "Good. That means it's time to start working on a way out of here."

"Uh, honey," Jack said, his tone sending a cold rush through her spark. "We need to move."

She looked over her shoulder and found two more Insecticons coming through the doorway. One of them had glanced over and spotted her and the others. He cocked his head, glanced at the other Insecticon, and pointed.

"Is that Arcee?"

"Looks like her," the other one growled.

"Strange. I expected her to be taller." He raised his hand to smash them against the console.

She swung her rifle around to aim at his optics and Jack lined up a shot with his EMP rifle.

June gasped and reached out to grab him, but stopped herself so she wouldn't throw off his aim.

He pulled the trigger and the 'Con twitched, clamped his hands to the sides of his head, and grunted. But he kept moving.

"Oh, hell," Jack muttered. Some of the color drained from his face.

Arcee waited for a clear shot at the Insecticon's optics and took it. The bullet punched through and detonated. He released an electronic shriek and convulsed, but he continued functioning well enough to attempt to reacquire his aim on them.

She looked at Jack, June, and the two medics, and snapped, "Go!" She lined up another shot as they launched off to whatever cover they could find. She fired, but the 'Con's twitchy movements ruined her shot. The bullet dug into his forehead but didn't penetrate. She snarled and threw herself after the others.

"We're gonna need bigger guns."

#

Miko peeked into the corridor just as Optimus launched into view and slammed an Insecticon into the wall. Behind them, a whole swarm of the bipedal bugs raced along the floor, ceiling, and walls.

"Better hurry," she snapped. "Haven't you found anything yet?"

"I'm working on it!" Starscream grumbled and continued searching through the gadgets in the lab's storage compartments. "What about you? I've heard you've been a major asset in recent battles, but you were nowhere near us when your friend was being shot in the back."

She whirled on him, but suddenly the fight drained out of her. He's right. Sonofabitch. I'm so sorry, Bulkhead. She squeezed her eyes shut and held her breath until she was sure she wouldn't burst into tears again.

"I was scouting ahead. All I have is a half dozen flashbangs, and those would've knocked out any Cybertronian within range. And since we have no idea whether they'd even work on the Insecticons, I'm not risking it now. I thought I'd make myself useful, and I thought everyone else could handle it."

She took another peek outside. Optimus had just finished twisting an Insecticon's head off and sent the body floating in her direction. The rest of them piled on top of him, but he went on punching, kicking, stabbing, and--whenever he could--shooting them in the face.

"And did you make yourself useful? Did you find anything that would help?"

She gnashed her teeth, but forced herself to sit there and take it. "I found several energon store rooms. If we can steer the ship back within range of the ground bridge, we can empty out one or two of 'em, maybe blow another one up if we need something big to cover our escape."

An idea clicked into place and she looked around, spotted the satchel charges the team had left on the consoles. She launched herself at the nearest one, grabbed it, disarmed it, and moved on to the next.

Starscream paused to watch her. "What are you doing?"

"Making myself useful." She snatched up the rest of the charges and zipped back into the corridor, where she found Optimus still fighting off the Insecticons. The air around him was filled with 'Con corpses and body parts, but so many new arrivals filled the end of the corridor, Miko couldn't see anything behind them.

Ashanti's team floated into the corridor, concentrating their fire on the nearest bugs. There was only so much they'd be able to do, though.

Won't be long before he's overwhelmed--and the rest of the team, too. She bounced off the wall and caught a handhold.

Then she turned up her helmet's amplifier, drew in a deep breath, and yelled, "Hey! Which one of you chickenshit bastards shot Bulkhead in the back?"

#

Arcee's mouth fell open and she turned to stare at the doorway. Three Insecticons had entered the room, and stopped when they heard her voice.

"Miko," Arcee snapped, "what the fuck are you doing?"

"You'll see," her reply came over the comlink.

Jack aimed his EMP rifle at one of the three bugs on this side of the doorway and fired. The 'Con twitched and grunted, pushed against the nearer Insecticon's shoulder and turned to face Jack.

Jack glanced at Arcee and nodded. She centered her sniper rifle's crosshairs on the bug's optics, using the scope instead of relying on her targeting system, and punched an explosive round into his brain. The charge blew out most of his optic strip and ripped apart the components directly behind it. He convulsed violently for a second and floated limp in the air.

"Ah-hah." Arcee smiled grimly. "Just gotta hit 'em in exactly the right spot."

Jack nodded and turned his rifle on the nearer Insecticon, who had just finished turning around. Jack emped him and shifted his aim to the third bug while Arcee lined up her shot. She took it, and the bug lurched backward, green flames and shrapnel spewing from his blown-out optics. The body tumbled backward, cartwheeling slowly through the air.

Another bug floated past the doorway as Jack zapped his next target. "I am the one."

Arcee blew the third bug's brains out

"Then I've got a score to settle with you, you son of a bitch," Miko yelled. "Come on. You and me. Let's dance."

"Miko," Optimus rumbled, his eyes wide in sudden fear, "don't!"

The 'Cons exchanged an amused glance.

"Or are you a coward?" Miko continued. "You afraid to fight one little girl?"

Optimus struggled to push past the bugs surrounding him, but even more piled on him. They clamped their hands onto his arms and legs and twisted and pulled, trying to tear him apart. He managed to wrench his right arm away from one of his opponents and plunge his blade into the bug's neck.

Arcee glanced at Jack and the others to be sure they weren't in immediate danger, and kicked off toward the doorway.

The Insecticon snarled and pulled himself along the wall toward Miko.

"Yeah, that's it! You don't have the balls to face an Autobot head-on, so a defenseless little kid like me should be right up your alley! Bring it, ya fuckin' pussy!"

The bug roared and launched at the end of the corridor just as Arcee reached the wall. She caught a glimpse of Miko's pink armor disappearing through a doorway as the Insecticon charged after her--followed by four others.

Arcee shook her head. "Miko, what the hell?"

An incoming message came from Miko's comlink.

"I'm sending you the locations of six nearby energon storerooms, just in case I can't pull this off," the girl whispered. "Of course, if I can, we'll be minus one of 'em in a couple minutes."

"Miko, please, don't take on those monsters alone!"

"Don't worry, they'll never see me coming." After a brief pause, she added, "But in case I don't come back from this, tell Bulkhead I love him like he's my brother. See you when I see you." She closed the channel.

"Shit," Arcee whispered.

"She's insane," Starscream muttered over the comlink.

Jack sighed and shook his head. "There's insane, and then there's Miko." He pushed off gently and drifted through the air.

"Eheh. I'll stay out of her way, then."

Arcee shared another glance with Jack and nodded at the bugs swarming Optimus. Moving as one, they turned to aim out the door.

"Brace yourself, Optimus. We're gonna see if we can knock some of 'em off you, but you might catch some of the EMP."

Before Optimus could answer, Starscream suddenly shouted, "I think I've found something!"

"About time," Arcee grumbled.

"It should stun the Insecticons, if not offline them permanently, but you'll need to get clear first. And I mean, as far away as possible."

"Wait! Optimus is right in the middle of them!"

"There is no time to delay," Optimus said, trying to wriggle his way out of the bugs' grip. He rammed his blade into another Insecticon's chest, but couldn't break free of the others. "Do it!"

"You asked for it," Starscream muttered.

"Everyone, take cover," Ashanti shouted. Her team flitted back into the room and headed for the far wall.

"Oh, hell." Arcee flung Jack and June in the same direction, followed up by grabbing the medics' hands and pushing against the wall, and sailed across the chamber. She reached the wall a few seconds after Jack and his mom, and Jack threw his arms around her. She embraced him and turned to watch Optimus and the Insecticons.

"We're all clear."

"Eat this, vermin!"

Something that looked like a lightning bolt snapped into the clump of Insecticons and all of them writhed and shrieked as electric arcs jumped all over their bodies. They drifted apart and Optimus hung in the air, groaning and convulsing, while the bolt jumped to one of the nearby bugs and from him to the others, and even to the walls, floor, and ceiling. The lights in the corridor flickered and faded out, and the arc from Starscream's weapon chain-jumped through all the remaining 'Cons.

"Everyone okay?" Arcee smiled at Jack and stroked the side of his helmet. He nodded, smiled, and touched her cheek.

The others sounded off...except Optimus. Arcee launched across the room toward his motionless body.

"Optimus?" As she floated closer, one of the bugs drifted out of the way and revealed his closed optics. "Optimus?"

Again, he remained motionless and silent.

"Oh, no." She activated her comlink. "Ratchet!"

"He's still alive, but unconscious."

Relief washed over her, but then a realization sank in. "That means the Insecticons are merely stunned, too. Fucking hell."

#

Here we go. Miko grasped the edge of the doorway and used it to swing herself into a ninety-degree turn--and there in front of her was a huge room filled with glowing blue energon packed into cubes. They had probably been stacked from floor to ceiling before Starscream had cut off the artificial gravity, but now they were floating free.

Clanking sounds came from the far end of the corridor and she paused to look over her shoulder. She grinned at the sight of the five enormous Insecticons scuttling over the walls and ceiling like xenomorphs in the hallways on LV-426.

Gotcha, you assholes! She kicked herself past the glowing cubes, rebounded off the ceiling, and dived behind the cluster. She engaged her armor's stealth system, planted one of the satchel charges on a cube, armed it, and set the timer. Thirty seconds should be enough.

She pushed herself to the wall on the left and found the bugs crawling through the door. They magnetized their feet to whatever surface they happened to be holding on to, and clanked toward the cubes, sweeping their glowing red optics slowly over the room.

One of them passed within a few feet of her and continued on by.

Smirking, she kept propelling herself along the wall and back into the corridor. She braced her feet on the side of a light fixture and pushed as hard as she could, rocketing herself back toward her friends.

Any second now.

She'd nearly reached the branch in the hall when the charge blew. The resulting explosion nearly deafened her, leaving her ears ringing, and knocked the entire ship sideways. The wall on her right shot toward her and the impact bounced her into the opposite wall. All the lights in the corridor flickered off.

A gust of wind whipped past her and sent her tumbling through the air, then it died down abruptly.

Silence. All around her, impenetrable silence.

Shit, I'm deaf. She sighed. Worth it, though. That one's for you, Bulk. She smiled grimly as she continued drifting. She scanned for Cybertronian life signs and found none nearby.

As she turned in the air, the damage she'd caused rotated into view.

"Jesus Christ!" Okay, I heard that. Not deaf, then. But now she could see why everything had gone silent.

The entire room she'd lured the bugs into was gone. And so was the rest of the corridor and the wall across from the room. In fact, through the gaping hole in the wall, ceiling, and floor, she could see other rooms and halls that had been ripped open. Several Insecticon arms and legs and part of a head floated around a few yards away. The edges glowed red-hot and the rest of them were warped, as if they'd been partially melted.

"Miko!" Arcee's voice suddenly yelled into her ears. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, fine." She grabbed onto the mangled edge of the hole to stop herself from floating into open space, looked around, and whistled softly. "That was a helluva thing."

"Did you...did you get the Insecticons?"

"Yep, they're scrap." She took a moment to draw in a few deep breaths and stare out into space. "I also kinda breached the hull. We're orbiting the moon."

"Wait a minute," Ashanti said. "You're exposed to space?"

"Yeah. Good thing this armor's airtight."

"Actually, these aren't spacesuits. They automatically seal up if they're submerged in water or surrounded by toxic gas, or anything else that isn't a normal atmosphere--but they're not equipped with oxygen tanks. They're just designed to keep you alive for a few minutes until you can get out of the water or gas or whatever."

"Oh." Miko stopped breathing deeply. "Well, fuck me."

"Also, since the whole ship didn't vent, that means emergency doors near you slammed shut to seal off the damaged area. You're trapped there."

"Don't worry about that. I'll find a way back to you. Air vent or maintenance shaft or something. Just take care of my buddy, okay?"

"You got it, Miko," Arcee said.

"Thanks." She gazed out at the surface of the moon hanging above her. It looked almost close enough to touch.

Wait a minute. She frowned, remembering something about the moon that she only vaguely remembered.

"Uh, there could be another problem. Since we're orbiting the moon, sooner or later we'll go around to the far side. The moon will be between us and Earth."

"Shit," Jensen groaned. "We'll lose communications with Earth."

Jack spoke up, suddenly sounding panicked. "And that means Arcee will lose her link to her Mini-Me."

"Oh, hell." Arcee's remote-operated body on the Nemesis would simply revert to an empty shell and she would be stuck back in the Autobot base, unable to help her friends or even know what was happening here.

Miko turned around, switched on the lights on the sides of her helmet, and began scanning the walls for an opening.

"Just keep working. I'll find my way back to you." Before I run out of air, I hope. "We can finish this before we lose contact with the base. We have to."