"Is that an escape pod?" Raf asked.
"Here? In Earth's atmosphere?" Ratchet asked.
Optimus walked forward and looked at the screen, where Raph had uploaded the image.
"Autobot or Decepticon?" Arcee asked.
"I can't tell, the image's quality is slim to none." Ratchet answered.
Optimus narrowed his optics. "In either case, this merits investigation."
"It could be a trap, and we're down one bot." Arcee said, gesturing in Bulkhead's direction with her helm. "Should we contact Wheeljack?"
"I can hear you." Bulkhead grumbled.
Ratchey scoffed, "I don't care if Bulkhead isn't combat ready. After that revenge stunt he pulled with Miko, Wheeljack and stay rouge.
"An Autobot may be in distress. Ratchet, bring your medical kit." Optimus instructed before walking to the ground bridge and firing it up.
The others followed behind him, leaving Bulkhead and Raf in charge of the groundbridge controls. A trail of energon lead to a crashed escape pod; the side of it was burnt and the top was melted.
Arcee walked up to the ship and spotted an insigna, covered in ash and grime. She wiped it away, for the most part, and frowned.
"It is of Decepticon origin." Optimus stated.
Arcee scowled, looking up, "And the 'con inside blew his way out."
Before they could think of a way to go about this, blasters fired on them from behind, prompting the Autobots to whirl around. Optimus equipped his blaster and started shooting at the Decepticons.
Arcee and Bumblebee took cover while Ratchet just pulled out his knife and kind of just stood there.
Only less than a minute into the battle, two more blasters started firing from behind them, one of them an energon blue and the other was smaller, and colored petroleum red, not quite the same as a Decepticon blast however.
Optimus looked ducked behind a boulder and glanced back. Another bot was running out of the treeline, his blaster aimed at the Decepticons. There was another red blast fire from next to him, where a human was holding a glowing silver sword. Blasts erupted from it's tip. She was running unusually fast for a human, keeping up with the unknown bot easily.
"Down in front!" He yelled, jumping over Arcee and Bumblebee.
He fired off a few shoots, before suddenly, he was knocked back by an insecticon. He fired at it, but one of his shots missed and hit the energon trail from the crash.
Everyone's optics widened. It would explode.
"Fall back!" Optimus ordered, backing away a few steps before turning around and running toward the pod. Everyone took cover behind it just as the energon exploded.
The white bot glanced over the top eagerly before climbing up and pointing at the smoking heap of vehicons.
"Woohoo! Too hot for you 'cons?" He asked.
The human lowered her sword and sighed.
"Friend of yours?" Ratchet asked Bumblebee.
"Not this time, sorry." Bumblebee beeped in Cybertronian.
"Never seen him before." Arcee said as Ratchet turned to her.
Optimus narrowed his optics as the bot turned back to them and jumped down from the pod. A proud grin rested on his faceplates. His EM field widened and detected the default language of everyone before he spoke.
"Torching that energon leak, pretty good plan, right?"
"Execpt that it wasn't a plan, it was a random shot that almost fried us to a crisp." Arcee glared.
"Worked out didn't it?" He asked.
Optimus stepped forward, gesturing for Arcee to hand over control of the situation to him. She scowled and crossed her arms. The Prime looked at the white mech.
"Thank you fellow Autobot. And..." Optimus trailed off, unsure of the human.
She set her sword in it's sheath and then spoke in Cybertronian, "I am Firefly of Zenthara. What language are you speaking?"
"English of Earth." Optimus informed her.
She nodded and started typing on a disk connected to her wrist.
"What is your name?" Optimus asked the Autobot.
"Smokescreen. Sir." He saluted.
"Welcome to Earth, Smokescreen." The Prime told him, slightly amused at his formal tone.
"It's an honor to be here. Especially with you." He said, shaking Optimus's outstretched servo.
"Now what? It's not like we can just bring them back to base." Ratchet asked.
"It wouldn't be the first time an ally turned out to be a fake." Arcee said.
Optimus examined Smokescreen, before spotting his unique insigna. "I see that you finished your training from Cybertron's elite guard."
"True enough, but it wasn't much more than a boot camp by the time I joined in. Never even got a proper welcome."
Smokescreen went on to tell us about his station after his graduation, which was in the Iacon Hall of Relics. It was a suspiciously convenient post, but then Smokescreen finally got to the part that determined whether or not he could be trusted.
"Turned out Alpha Trion was actually a good teacher, and a true friend. I mean, he was the one who petitioned Halacon to make you a Prime."
Optimus regarded him for a moment before nodding. He turned to the girl and frowned, no longer entirely sure if she was human or not.
"Who are you?"
"Firefly." She answered. "Commander of Zenthara."
"What are you doing away from your forces?" He asked.
Firefly shot a glare at Smokescreen. "I'm not here by choice."
Optimus sighed and nodded before activating his comms. "Rafael, activate the groundbridge.".
"That's it? That's all you need to hear before inviting him to the party?" Arcee asked. "I can understand her. Megatron hates Zentarics, but Smokescreen? How do you know he isn't a plant?"
"Alpha Trion's involvement in my ascension to becoming a Prime was a well guarded secret. If Alpha Trion shared this information, it was because he considered Smokescreen a trusted ally." Optimus explained. "Therefore, he is now a member of Team Prime."
"Yessss!" Smokescreen pumped his fist and everyone glanced at him. The young bot looked around at them before calming down and smiling meekly. "I mean, uh, I would be honored, sir."
YOU ARE READING
Flame Factor
FanfictionBattle was not foreign to Firefly. She wasn't from Earth or Cybertron, Firefly was born on a planet called Zenthara, where her father and her were the chief protectors. She had been trained for war since the death of her beloved mother. When th...
