Irregularity

CHAPTER 8

Sneaking around the vanguard ship was much easier than Bumblebee thought. They had near misses with Deseeus, and they ducked into rooms whenever the reforged Quintesson ran down the hall they were in. The close proximity to Starscream made the yellow bot immensely uncomfortable, but not as much as earlier in their cabin. He must be getting used to him being around. However, his suspicion grew – Starscream always knew where Deseeus was, making sneaking past and around them as easy as it was.

The two bots managed to get back to the air locks, and go back into space. They hopped back over to the Blue Stasis and quickly got inside. As soon as they left the airlocks, they both made noises of confusion and distress.

The lights were still out, forcing the two to activate their night vision. Hanging from the ceiling were many cables and wires, zapping and sparks falling from them. Energon was smeared along the walls and floor, the worst of which being a trail of it on the floor, like something was dragged along the ground. Neither Starscream nor Bumblebee expected anything quite like this, and they hadn't hoped for it. Bumblebee's grip on his pistol tightened, and he lifted it with utmost caution.

"What in the name of Solus?" He muttered.

Starscream didn't make a comment. They began padding through the ship, weapons at the ready. Their optics darted around, looking into rooms to see what could be inside. Most had no one inside.

Bumblebee peeked inside a certain room, which held stasis pods for the drones. The drones had been dragged out of their pods and slaughtered, body parts strewn about and Energon staining every object. He shivered and quickly turned away, even more paranoid.

The two approached the bridge, where they saw Springewave slouched over the captain's terminal, visor dark. His back had a huge puncture through it, and the back of his helm appeared to have been ripped off, processors pulled out in an angry fervor, some parts on the ground nearby. Starscream and Bumblebee recoiled.

"What the frag? What did this?" The yellow bot asked.

He approached the flight controls, further disheartened upon seeing Nebula. She was slouched over the terminal, a hole through the chair and through her Spark. Bumblebee's fists shook. He turned and punched the wall with an angry yell. Starscream flinched, staring at the smaller bot.

"We came here to save the Ark crew, yet we only find one bot, and the rest of the crew is dead!" He yelled.

His anger was palatable, even without a flared EM field. The flier padded over, resting a servo on his shoulder. Now he could feel Bumblebee's whole body shake, hearing his panting.

"I'm enraged by this situation as well, but perhaps someone is still alive." He said, "Have hope."

Bumblebee sighed, moving away from the wall and swiping the flier's servo off him. The flier bit back a comment on how moody the smaller was.

"Maybe." He grumbled, "Where do we start?"

"Perhaps the engine room? They were going to try repairing it." Starscream reasoned.

The yellow bot nodded, then turned and left the bridge. Starscream watched him go, then followed him.

The two padded towards the engine room, which barely took any time. However, the door was wide open, with the sounds of conflict wafting out. The two bots looked inside, and stared with horror as they saw Doomstreaker trying to stab Ironhide's chassis. The black and gray bot was on top of the red bot, struggling to stab him because of the older bot pushing against their arms.

Bumblebee immediately upholstered his blaster and fired at Doomstreaker. Unfortunately, they managed to dodge the shot, helm whipping around and glaring at the two bots. Starscream was the next to spring into action, running over and pulling them off of Ironhide. Doomstreaker dropped their knife, groaning and struggling against him. They finally elbowed Starscream, causing the flier to groan in pain and stumble back. Doomstreaker turned and punched his helm, then turned back around to grab their knife.