Shards (Transformers Prime, Shattered Glass)

Chapter 1

-3 years later-

The sky was gray.

But then again, the sky above the North American continent had been gray for the past three and a half decades. Ever since the barriers went up, blocking out the light.

It was supposed to be a shield, the ultimate defense, erected by public mass desire after Russia nuked the Hawaiian islands, utterly devastating them and rendering them totally incapable of supporting any sort of life for a supposed thousand years. But no one was certain, not anymore, since no one had left or even had contact from the outside world from the second the power generators went on.

There had only been one disruption in the consistency of the canopy, when a green swirling light opened up in the same space as the energy shield, disrupting the entire resonance and for a second, the sun shone again.

Then the portal closed as two massive dark objects came hurtling through, smoke and fire pouring from the cracks in the hulls. They crashed in the heart of the Gobi desert, leaving chunks of burning metal and the bodies of the unearthly crews littered the sand, steam rising from rent metal skins.

The larger never rose again, buried deep in the sand, it's thrust engines twisted beyond all repair.

The smaller of them managed to stagger back into the air, bent, broken, deprived of the larger part of her crew, barely able to function, but managing.

It hovered at the edge of the barriers, trying to escape.

But now, though it could not escape, the warship Ally stayed at the edges of the barrier, using the dissonance caused by the short-wave energy ripples like a frightened bird used the edges of a cloud or the lower leaves of a tree to hide from the eyes of a hawk or cat, it's only method of reaching the ground to gather precious Energon and other much needed supplies was a badly damaged and sometimes unreliable Groundbridge, that usually worked, but other times put the commander and chief medical officer (also, the only medical officer) down in the middle of the Canadian wilderness when they where trying to reach coordinates in southern Florida to track down a possible Energon source.

But that only happened when the engines where at half-capacity, the United Continental Government of North America was trying to blow them out of the sky, and Breakdown had gotten himself stuck in the utilities storage unit.

In other words, Megatron, leader of the Decepticons, was not having a very good day. And it was no way improved by the fact that he was manning the bridge entirely by himself since everyone else was either trying to free Breakdown or repair the Groundbridge.

A consul from the other side of the room beeped, drawing him away from the navigation system which he was trying to reconfigure in an attempt to relocate the lost crew members, and as soon as he turned around it reset.

He hissed in frustration and returned to it, trying to recover the lost progress to no avail. He left it as the communications beeped again.

"Starscream? What's your status?"

"Cold," the commander's voice came shuddering across the line with a pathetic whine "And wet. This isn't Florida is it?"

"No, you're in Canada. Near the Arctic circle."

"The Arctic cir-" Starscream's went high pitched then cut off ito a growl of frustration.

"We're working on correcting the Groundbridge's coordination system. We should have you and the doctor back in..." he hesitated "In a couple of hours."

"Ahhours?" The line crackled then there was a second's pause "Wait, the doctor's not still on the ship?"

"No? You mean he's not with you?"

The consul beeped and Megatron opened a second communications line and immeadiatly, despite thousands of miles distance, Knockout's voice came loud and clear.

"Where. Am. I."

It wasn't even a really question, just an irritated resignation of the fact that the Groundbridge wasn't working again.

"Take a guess," Megatron sighed.

"Not. Florida."

"Good guess. Now guess how long it's going to be before the Groundbridge is fixed?"

"Ack. Where's Starscream? I assume he's not in Florida either?"

"No he's-" Megatron paused, trying to pull up the coordinates map "he's..." a red error warning flashed across the screen "Starscream where are you?"

"In the middle of a lake!"

"Your coordinates, Starscream!"

"Oh. I don't know. I'm waterlogged, I can't get any readings."

"Doctor?"

"I've got nothing, sorry sir."

"Right. Well, as soon as I-"

Megatronus started to turn, his elbows clattering against something that hadn't been there before.

"Ahhgg! Soundwave! I told you not to sneak up on me like that!"

"Sorry sir!" The masked communications officer dodged backwards "Incoming message from Silas, he says its urgent."

"It's always urgent," Megatron muttered "Alright. Commander, Dr. K, I'm closing the communication lines now, try not to get into too much trouble until we fix the Groundbridge."

"Riiiight," Knockout replied slowly "Cause we're not in any sort of trouble as it is."

"Just, don't die."

"I assure you, neither of us are planning on it."

Megatron thought he heard a snicker as he closed the lines but couldn't tell if it came from Starscream or Soundwave.

No matter.

He opened the visual comm and immediately Silas's weary face flickered across the screen.

"Megatron," the scarred human greeted him flatly "I need your help."

"What is it?"

"We... have a situation."

Megatron winced. MECH had come to the Decpticons before with asking for help with their "situations" and almost invairiably it ended badly.

"What's happened?"

"Early this morning the United Continental Goverment accused a man of MECH affilliations-"

"I thought MECH purposly avoided keeping records of those involved within its operations to avoid such scenarios?" Soundwave intterupted.

"It doesn't matter much now," Silas said "Because one hour after accusing him, he was executed."

There was an awkward pause acrosd the comm. Megatron glanced down at Soundwave, then back at Silas and asked slowly.

"I thought human law dictated that the accused has to have a trial before capital punishment can be given out?"

"Yeah," Silas said coldly "It does. But try telling that to the UCG."

Soundwave raised a tentacle "Wait. If he's already dead, then what's the situation?"

"The UCG has taken it upon themselves to... make an example of those who decide to affiliate with MECH. They've planned a strike attack on the man's home, to go out within the hour. MECH can't get in close enough to attempt an evac."

"So you want us to use the Groundbridge," Megatron felt his spark sink.

"It's their only chance."

"But our Groundbridge isn't working!"

"Then we'll have to leave Breakdown in the storage unit and have everyone start working on reparing the Groundbridge. How long do we have exactly, Silas?"

"Fourty-seven minutes approx. Is it enough?"

Megatron frowned.

"It'll have to be."