Note: In its original printing in my fanzine Roll Out, this story was part of a crossover with another series running in the zine at the time (which will be continued as soon as I get that dang heating element for my Xerox machine :P). The other series, "Autobase Controllers" by Shaun McMichael, is about a group of Autobots and Decepticons who crashed on Earth several thousand years ago while searching for the Ark. The characters Dial, DeRolle, and Xevander were all created by him and originally appeared in that series.
Firestormers #9: Cybertron Under Seige, pt. 2
By Trixter
The low rumble of the Starcruiser's engines warming up drowned out most of the roar of the battle outside the shuttle hangar at the Cybertron Spaceport, and both noises grew louder for a moment as the door slid open and Trixter and Afterburner rushed onto the bridge carrying canisters of shuttle fuel, the last of the supplies they needed before take-off. "Go ahead and put these in the tank in the back," Trixter said, handing hers to Afterburner. He turned down the hall at the back of the bridge and and she went in the opposite direction to the pilot's seat, where Air Raid was firing up the engines and checking the controls. The other Firestormers, joined by Dial, Dharma, Skids, and Furie, had all taken positions around the bridge and were ready to go.
As Trixter approached him, Air Raid looked up. "You wanna fly this time?" he asked.
"Of course," she replied.
He got up and mockingly bowed to her. "Your seat, madame."
"Yeah, yeah," she said, smiling, as she sat down. "You can co-pilot, since Afterburner's in the back." As he took the seat at the control panel next to her Trixter turned to the other Autobots. "Everyone hold onto something, take-off's gonna be rough. The 'Cons are still bombing the spaceport, so the runway's just about non-existant."
Afterburner ran onto the bridge just as the ship lurched forward and braced himself in the entrance to the hallway. Trixter expertly eased the Starcruiser through the open shuttle bay doors and pulled it up to a near-vertical take-off amidst laser fire that rocked the small craft. In moments they were out of Cybertron's thin atmosphere and among the orbiting Decepticon warships. Trixter eased around their sensor fields as best she could and turned on the forward viewscreen. As soon as the picture resolved itself she recognized the scorpion-like design of the Twilight, ahead of them and to the left. She carefully guided the Starcruiser alongside it, cutting power to the engines to a bare minimum to avoid detection. She hoped the Decepticons would be too busy with the planet below to notice the heat her shuttle's engines were giving off. Using her own ship's external sensors to find their approximate location relative to the larger ship, she brought the Starcruiser up against the hull of the Twilight in a place near both the engineering section, where Upstart's team was to go, and the bridge, where Trixter's team was heading.
As the Starcruiser touched the side of the Twilight, Trixter turned on the powerful electromagnets installed around the outside of the door, forming an airtight and nearly unbreakable bond between the two ships. Afterburner once again disappeared into the back of the ship and reappeared a moment later with a heavy-duty cutting torch. Everyone gathered around the door as it was opened. The outer hull of the Twilight was all that could be seen through it, flush with the outside of the doorway. Afterburner quickly got to work cutting an entrance to the ship.
While he worked, Trixter gave everyone one last briefing on the mission. She was taking Dharma, Skids, and Furie while Upstart took Air Raid, Strafe, and Afterburner. The Micromaster Dial was assigned to stay behind and guard the ship. "We'll meet back here fifteen minutes from the time we enter," Trixter said. "If either group is late the other should wait another five minutes before leaving. Dial, if no one's returned in thirty minutes, take the 'Cruiser back to Cybertron." Though she was trying hard not to let it affect her, her briefing was only serving to remind her how dangerous their self-assigned mission was, and how much danger she was putting them all in. Even though they had all agreed to it, it was still her idea, and if anyone failed to make it out alive she knew it would be her fault. She tried to push the thought out of her mind.
Everyone had chosen weaponry from the Starcruiser's modest arsenal before take-off and they loaded and charged them as she spoke. "I'm almost through," Afterburner announced as Upstart slung a grenade belt across his shoulder. All except Dial moved in closer to the door, preparing to rush aboard as soon as the hull was breached.
"Good luck, guys," Trixter said, turning to Upstart and his group.
"We don't need luck," Upstart said, grinning, "we have lots of explosives!"
"Time to go!" Afterburner announced, pushing on the hull. A large piece of it the size and shape of the Starcruiser's doorway fell into the Decepticon ship with a loud bang and the Autobots ran into the hallway, each team going in a different direction.
"Lord Jhiaxus, sir, the Autobots have boarded," the Decepticon reported to his commander.
Jhiaxus sat in a throne-like chair on a raised platform in the back of the bridge of the Twilight, overseeing the operations of his fleet's flagship with all the regality of a king overlooking the operations of his castle during wartime. The large room was dark but for the flashing colored lights from the control consoles covering three of the four walls and the flickering viewscreens lit with scenes from the battle raging on the planet below. He turned to his underling and smiled. "Good," he replied, "have them captured and brought to me. I'll see to it personally that these Autobots cease to bother me."
"Yes, my leige."
"All clear?" Furie whispered as Trixter peered around a corner. They had reached an intersection and Skids was consulting the mapping device they had brought from the Starcruiser while Trixter kept an optic out for Decepticons. Dharma and Furie stood with their weapons drawn. They had entered the Twilight near the place where the other Firestormers had been kept prisoner the last time they were there and the device, in addition to helping them find their way back to the ship, was programmed to lead them to the bridge according to their directions.
"All clear," Trixter confirmed. "We go this way, right?" she asked Skids, gesturing to the right hallway, a dead-end corridor with a lift at the end.
"Yes, to the right and then up two levels. Keep in mind," he said, "that, as we get closer to the bridge, we're going to have a lot of Decepticons to deal with."
"I know. You can still back out," she said, without the slightest trace of challenge in her voice. "I'm sure little Dial wouldn't mind the company..."
"We'll go on," Dharma answered for him. The Autobots walked quietly along the short hallway to the lift doors. Trixter pushed the button and waited. There was a whirring behind the door, then silence for a moment. Then the doors slid open and all Hell broke loose.
Upstart double-checked his own mapping device as he ran. The hall ahead of them ended in a doorway, just as it did on the map. And through the doorway was the engine room, their destination. They had had little trouble so far and he silently hoped their luck would hold out. They came to the door and stopped. "Okay, guys, here's the fun part," Upstart announced, grinning. "I'll open the door and throw in a grenade, then as soon as it goes off we rush in and open fire while they're still trying to figure out what's going on. Use your infrared sensors, these grenades make a lot of smoke. Go mainly for the equipment, don't really worry about the 'Cons themselves unless they're shooting at you. Air Raid, you go in first, then Strafe, then Afterburner, then me. Regroup when the smoke starts to clear." The other three nodded their understanding. "Alright, then, let's go!" He took a grenade off his belt and pulled the pin. Quickly, he pushed the button beside the door and, as it whooshed open, threw it inside. Within seconds there was an explosion and they ran into the smoke-filled room, guns ablaze.
The fact that they hadn't been killed on the spot bothered Trixter as she and her teammates were led, shackled, through another hallway by the strange green-and-white Decepticon guards. She was familiar enough with the layout of the ship from the mapping device to know they weren't being taken to the prison, and familiar enough with protocol from their last visit to guess that they were being taken before Jhiaxus himself. While it seemed to support her theory that he was only attacking Cybertron to lure her team out in the open, it still worried her. The last time she and Jhiaxus had met she had proceeded to steal a shuttle and get his lieutenant killed. She doubted he would be very happy to see her again. Her arm had been injured in the fight when the guards came out of the lift and she could feel a small trail of fluid tickling its way down her upper arm to her elbow. All of them had minor scrapes from the scuffle, but none had been seriously injured. Trixter was thankful for that. If it came down to fighting their way off the Twilight it wouldn't do to have any of them disabled.
One of the guards opened a door ahead of them and the Autobots were shoved through it. The guards didn't follow. As the door closed their shackles unlocked automatically and clattered to the floor. Trixter looked up and was greeted by a familiar face.
Jhiaxus sat before them, armed with a large rifle. Besides the Autobots, he was the sole occupant of the bare metal room. He sat in a chair on a platform like the one on the bridge, the sole decoration in the room. The Decepticon commander looked them over apprasingly, his stare alone malicious enough to hold them in place for the moment. When he finally spoke he addressed Trixter first. "I remember you, but your companions here are new to me. Did you Firestormers really think you were so clever that you could sneak past my ship's defences in your puny shuttle? We detected it as soon as you left the atmosphere. Our sensors are apparently much better than you anticipated. I wondered who would have the audacity to try to sneak onboard my flagship, but as soon as the shuttle was identified as the one we had captured before, I wasn't the least bit surprised. I trust your other group is your four friends from last time. I'll have them here soon enough."
"Now that you have us, will you leave Cybertron alone?" Trixter challenged.
"Leave Cybertron alone!?" Jhiaxus laughed. "Do you really think I was only attacking Cybertron to get to you? The information I got from your ship's computer led us here, but we certainly didn't come here just for you! You're more presumptuous than I ever imagined!"
"Then why didn't you just shoot us down as soon as you spotted us?" Trixter asked, confused. "Why did you bring us here?"
Jhiaxus stood up. "Your kind, you Autobots, you Firestormers," he spat the last word with contempt, "have been the bane of my existance ever since we first encountered you, sabotaging our colonization efforts and trying to stop our rightful imperial expansion. We only needed to find your nest, and you provided us with that information. And now I'm personally taking measures to eradicate you Autobots. Personally, like this!" He swung his gun up and, before any of them saw it coming, before they had a chance to act, there was a flash of light from the barrel of the rifle and Skids fell, smoking and charred and unmistakably dead. The other three froze in shock, staring, gaping in disbelief. "Now who shall be next?" he asked menacingly, pointing the gun at each in turn.
Dharma recovered from the shock first. "Skids..." she whispered. Then she turned on Jhiaxus. "You...you'll die for that!" she shouted furiously, lunging at him. Her attack caught him off guard, and she was on him before he could bring his gun around. She grasped his head and concentrated all the power she could muster into shorting out every circuit in his mind. The pain for both of them was intense, and they screamed in unison, his bass roar mixing with her sorprano wail. Raw power radiated from the connection between them, almost tangible in its intensity. Then both screams stopped suddenly and Dharma and Jhiaxus collapsed to the floor.
Trixter ran over to Jhiaxus as Furie attended to Dharma. "He's dead!" Trixter exclaimed after examining the Decepticon.
"Dharma's still alive," Furie said quietly. "Barely, though. She's unconscious." As Trixter came over and knelt beside her the lights went out.
"I hope that means the guys are doing some damage," she said, switching to her infrared optic sensors. Furie did likewise. "Let's get Dharma back to the Starcruiser. Maybe she'll be okay if we can get her to a medic soon enough." Furie slid his arms under Dharma and gently lifted her. She stirred for a moment, mumbled something unintelligible, and was still again.
As they rushed out the door Trixter looked back for a moment at Skids, then reminded herself that the time for remorse would be later.
As the smoke started clearing Upstart realized that escaping from the Twilight wasn't going to be as easy as he had hoped. As he stood in the middle of the battle-torn engine room he could make out clusters of guards blocking all of the doorways. Hurriedly, as the other three Autobots regrouped around him, he checked his mapping device to locate which door led back to the Starcruiser, then pulled out a grenade. He turned to the others, noticing that Afterburner had injured his leg and was leaning on Air Raid. "If you haven't already noticed, they've got all the exits blocked off," he told them. "When this grenade goes off we have to make a break for it, and fast. I'll throw one behind us when we get to the hall to cover our retreat. Ready?" The rest of the team nodded. Upstart pulled the pin, waited a couple seconds, then tossed it at a cluster of guards. It exploded, creating even more smoke and sending Decepticon guards flying across the room. The Autobots ran through the opening and Upstart threw the second grenade. The second explosion brought down part of the ceiling, effectively blocking the passageway behind them.
It took Furie a moment to notice that Trixter was no longer running beside him. He came to a stop, lowered the unconscious Dharma to the ground, and turned back. Trixter had fallen and was on her knees, doubled over and clutching her side. As she looked up at him he could see the pain in her eyes even in the darkness. He tried to help her to her feet, but she couldn't stand. "It's my leg, Furie," she explained. "I should've known better than to overexert myself so soon after getting shot like that. Now my leg's not working right."
"The 'Cruiser's not much farther. You can lean on me the rest of the way."
Trixter and Furie arrived at the Starcruiser first. As Trixter limped to the pilot's seat and started up the engines, Furie lowered Dharma to the floor at the back of the bridge. Dial emerged from the back room, armed to the teeth from the ship's arsenal. "Dharma!?" he cried, seeing the unconscious Autobot. "What happened to her, Furie?"
"She..." Just then Upstart's team rushed aboard. Seeing that Trixter's team had made it back already, Strafe quickly closed the door behind them.
"What happened to Dharma? And where's Skids?" Upstart asked after checking to see if everyone was accounted for.
"Skids is gone," Trixter replied quietly as she disengaged the seal between the two ships. "Jhiaxus killed him."
"You guys actually fought Jhiaxus?" Afterburner asked, impressed. "I figured he let his cronies do all the fighting."
"You might even say we won," Furie added sadly. "Jhiaxus is dead, but the cost was so high..."
As the shuttle pulled away from the Twilight, everyone but Trixter stood with Dharma, solemnly keeping watch. Just before they reentered the atmosphere she slowly regained consciousness.
"Skids..." she whispered painfully.
Furie knelt beside her, holding her hand. "He's gone, Dharma."
"I know," she sighed. "It...it's getting harder to think." She looked around for a moment. "Where's Trixter? I...I need to speak to her."
"I'll get her," Air Raid offered. He left the circle and went over to where Trixter was piloting the ship, lost in thought. "Hey, Trix," he said quietly. She looked up, startled. "She wants to talk to you. I'll take over here if you want."
"Thanks," she said. She relinquished the controls to Air Raid and joined the others at the back of the bridge, kneeling beside Furie. "I'm here, Dharma."
"I need you to...find someone for me," she whispered. "His name is Maleeus. He lives in Iacon, in an...old warehouse on the north end of the city. Tell him I said...he has to look out for you now," she smiled faintly.
"Look out for me?" Trixter asked, puzzled.
"Just go see him. Please. It's important."
"I will. I promise. Just try to hold on a little longer..."
"Good...luck...Trixter..." she said, her voice fading with every word. Then the light in her eyes faded and her body went limp.
"You did so much for me," Trixter heard Furie whisper beside her, "but now I'm powerless to help you."
Soon a message went out to the Deceptocon fleet: "Jhiaxus is dead and the Twilight badly damaged. Recall your soldiers and return to the Hub." One by one, the Decepticon warships left Cybertron orbit and disappeared into the void.
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