Complicated Vows: This Is War

Epilouge

            The mechanics were running dozens of tests on the now-very-lively Camaro. The humans were in awe of how quickly the bot had snapped back into life. While they were checking and rechecking vital signs and systems, Optimus Prime was in another hangar of the bay, pressing Mirage for the details that he hadn’t realized he’d even missed from many of the previous events.

            Sitting on a giant block of metal made specifically to hold the weight of an Autobot, Optimus ran his questions past his comrade who stood in front of him, shifting from pede to pede, looking nervous like a spy who’d been caught fighting for the wrong team.

            Optimus’ deep voice echoed slightly in the large room. “Why did you bring the NEST team to our base? How did you know that their assistance would be needed?”

            Mirage tried his best to remain collected, but he feared the severe disapproval that he knew was coming when his leader reached the heart of this.

            Mirage slowly began to explain himself. However, unbeknownst to either of the Bots, two curious soldiers had managed to sneak just inside the doorway and were listening in on the conversation. They, like the rest of the NEST team, were itching to know just how the Autobots had known to call them for backup when they did. But as they soon found out, only Mirage had known of the threat, and that fact made the whole story worth even more. The explanation went something like this:

            It was three months before the battle in Danielle’s city. After a peculiar run in with the Decepticons, Mirage had cloaked himself and followed one back to its base. Sneaking in, Mirage scouted around and eventually found Megatron and Starscream discussing battle plans and war tactics.

            Just as Mirage was about to leave, feeling like what he was hearing would not help the Autobot cause in any way, the topic turned to an ongoing mission Starscream was on. The jet had been tracking the original Autobots that had fled to earth at the beginning of the war over Cybertron. Most had offlined on impact or been destroyed by Decepticon scouts. Only a handful had survived but there was one that Starscream had very recently taken a particular interest in. Having left the planet at such a very young age, and without his creators, it was astonishing to see that the bot had survived. What was strangest though was the earthen infection he’d seemed to have picked up. As it grew, the robot lost all ability to transform.

            Wanting authorization to further inspect the robot and its curious cancer, Starscream asked, and was granted, permission from Megatron. He figured that the infection would be similar to the effects of the rust weapon, but he wanted to know more.            The two Decepticons then devised a strategy to lure the Autobots out into the open. The plan was to get the Bots into the city when the truck was driven there by its human instead of trying to snatch it out in the country, too close to the Autobot base. If the truck could be captured, the mission would be successful, and research and experiments would start immediately. Based on the knowledge of the infestation’s destructive properties, they would also need an Autobot to test it out on. The yellow or silver one would be perfect for capture as they were smaller and younger than the others, easier to trap and take down.

            Once the trial tests were finished, with definitive results on how to turn the corruption into a weapon, they would attack the Autobot base.

            When Starscream made the mistake of asking for full leadership over the mission, Megatron blew up at him and a small fire fight broke out. That was Mirage’s definitive signal to leave.

            From there on out, the secret about the impending Decepticon attack had been a haunting one. It had dogged Mirage’s processor every time they engaged the enemy. Even though he had known nothing of the truck they had spoken of, he was still worried about when, not if, the plan would go into full swing.  But he hadn’t been able to tell Optimus or the others, he explained, for fear of them questioning his loyalty to the cause, having been at the Decepticon base in Megatron’s quarters.

            What shocked the human soldiers was Optimus’ reaction. He had not ridiculed Mirage for spying, only for hiding such a dangerous secret and expecting his unit to distrust him for knowing it. The Prime agreed that the unissued mission to the Decepticon base was worrisome to him, but he trusted that it was made in good intentions, though maybe not entirely in good judgment.

            At the end of their talk, Optimus rose and stretched his servo towards his loyal friend, meeting his optics and holding the gaze. Mirage was taken aback but infinitely grateful for the gesture of trust. He grabbed and held his leader’s shake before letting go and saluting. Optimus put him at ease before continuing on to another subject as if the loyalty issue had never been brought up.

            As the two humans quickly and quietly retreated, one of the soldiers began ranting about how all the guys were going to freak when they heard the story. Flustered with his companion’s lack of excitement and slow pace, he waved goodbye before jogging back towards the main quarters.

            As the man walked slowly out towards the exit of the base, he tried to keep a hold of his emotions. It was not that he was unenthusiastic; it was that he was raging in fury. He could not fathom how Mirage had managed to sneak onto the Decepticon base, though the Bot was known to sometimes use an invisibility cloak of some sort… He was a spy after all…

            Seething and ready to shoot and incinerate anything that dared taunt him, he exited the hangar into the back area of the base, secluded and mostly unlit even though it was nearing dusk now.

            A single car sat behind the building, the car itself spurring another wave of anger through the man’s body. The little green frag wasn’t worthy of the designation of “vehicle” but it was too late to be fixed now, at least not anytime soon.

            As he approached the pathetic little Prius, the driver’s side door popped open and he climbed in. He slammed his fists on the wheel just before the engine whined to life, the battery running the motor hardly making a sound.

            The soldier threw the car in reverse, spun it around, and nailed the accelerator, his fury mounting the closer he got to the edge of the military base’s property. He sped back through the hole in the fence that he had blasted earlier to get through the security.

            As his newly-exchanged mini-off-road tires hit the dirt track that lead to the Decepticon base, the man flickered in image before he disappeared altogether. The little blue Prius raged down the road, the speed firmly putting the engine in full gasoline-burning mode.

            Starscream couldn’t believe he had been so stupid as to pick such a worthless piece of slag; almost anything might have been better than this…

            He didn’t have time to fume about that though. The Decepticons now had bigger problems, and Starscream himself was going to have his wings ripped off by Megatron for losing the truck, failing the mission entirely, and the cherry on top was going to be the realization of the lack of security of their base.

            The jet ranted and raged within his tiny little hybrid frame, dreading the slagging he knew was about to drive into with his Lord...