All Hail Lord Starscream; Ruler of the Decepticons and Emperor of Cybertron.

Targeting sight:
These sights are added to indicate recently posted fictions, art and other pages.

For more information on what really is new in the site, please refer yourself to the news page or the site's front page. Site updates will usually be found there.

Battle rages between Autobots and Decepticons for Autobot City and Sunstar is missing. Fan Fiction based on the HMW alt hunt.

Great Alt-Hunt for Autobot City.

A simple note about this story. It was based off the activities of an Alt-hunt in Seibertron's Heavy Metal War (HMW). Both Autobots and Decepticons get a selections of Alt-modes they have hunt down. For this particular hunt it was the Constructicon alt-modes and the F-15 Seeker alt mode. This was a bit of a concern because my WHOLE team was the F-15 Seeker Alt. So, rather than get upset, I chose to write a small fic about the hunt from the perspective of the characters on my team: The Seekers of Cumulonimbus.

Thanks to Glyph for the editing

Return to chapter index

Sunstar, angry at the fact her team was being slaughtered left, right and center, decided to go face to face with her greatest fear: the ever-so-frightening T-Rex named Scarbo. She kicked him and muttered a curse as she dented her foot badly. Frustrated with what looked like another lost battle, she loaded her energon crossbow and landed a shot in Scarbo's great open jaws, just before he could bite her head off. She felled him as the shot penetrated his walnut-sized microprocessor.

Sunstar sighed with relief as she limped off to get her foot fixed in the repair bay. At least I didn't shoot myself, she thought as she left. Unlike a certain Air Commander I know.

Whitespark watched, from his invisible state, as Rexhater - a triceratops - took down Venomstrike. Except he was aware of two Autobots closing in on his location. How'd they find me? he wondered. Both attempted their attacks and he managed to evade them. Must've had advanced scanners, Whitespark reasoned. Thermal or radar scans would easily pick me up.

He inhaled sharply, realising that his dodges had caused him to get rather close to his target. He held his breath, but it seemed that the triceratops was completely oblivious to his proximity. Rexhater was standing over his prey poking at it with his foot, making sure the Decepticon was out. Or perhaps he was testing for tenderness.

Whitespark looked around and realised that he was the only Decepticon left standing in his unit. He glanced down at his x-ray laser. The light on the grip was glowing green: fully charged and ready to fire. He crept slowly until he was behind the Dinobot and held the weapon just inches from the back of the gruesome head.

"No brain, no pain," the sniper said softly as he pulled the trigger. The Dinobot fell to the ground with a thunderous crash.

"Whitespark to Thundercracker, target has been..." Too late, Whitespark abruptly realised that firing his weapon caused him to momentarily become fully visible.

"Whitespark?" Thundercracker's enquiry crackled back over the commlink.

"... get the CR chamber ready... I'm gonna need it... krzt-" The commlink gave a final sputter of static and went dead.

"Slag," Thundercracker cursed as he rested his head on his hand and tapped with deep irritation on the control panel. Another commlink beacon brightened - Sunstar was reporting in.

"Sunstar, what is your condition?" he enquired.

"Thundercracker, I got our target. Feathers is out of the air," Sunstar shouted into her radio.

"Good. Sunstar, return to base immediately. We've taken some heavy casualties," Thundercracker rapidly responded.

"Tell me about it, Hook's already given me some repair... Oh frag... Primus, I gotta jet." Sunstar abruptly cut her communications. She attempted to teleport, but her systems must have been damaged in her earlier injuries. Hook had only given her a little repair work, and a field repair was rarely good enough to patch up the extremely complex teleportation circuitry.

Caught short, Sunstar couldn't evade the semi powering towards her. As it rammed into her at full speed, she was sent flying across the field and lay stunned and unable to get up. Two Autobots took advantage of this situation and finished her off. The ground shuddered from some bombings and a building collapsed over where she laid, trapping her.

"Sunstar?" Thundercracker tried to hail her. "Sunstar, do you copy?"

There was no answer. Just the eerie static of the radio. "Sunstar?! I don't believe this..." he grumbled. "Thundercracker to Stratonimbus. Do you copy?" he tried.

"I read you loud and clear, Thundercracker," the former leader of the team replied. "We're under heavy fire..."

"Aren't we all," he muttered under his breath. "Sunstar has failed to report to base."

"Slag, I'll keep an optic out for her... right now; I've got two of these brainless creatures in my sights."

"Attempt your targets and then locate your sister. I'm on my way," Thundercracker said.

Stratonimbus nodded and closed the communications, then looked up just as Swoop -DINOBOTS- soared overhead. "I'm gonna get you, you hideous son of a Cessna," he cursed as he jumped into the sky and transformed. He fired his cannons at the Dinobot and it lost a wing and crashed into the ground, where it shuddered briefly and went into stasis lock. He smiled to himself and landed again.

"Thundercracker, this is Stratonimbus. I got Swoop, but I missed out on the other one. I will be proceeding with my search as requested."

"Understood. I'm experiencing a bit of a delay... hang tight, give me twenty minutes and I'll meet you," Thundercracker responded.

Stratonimbus sheltered under some fallen debris. His pale purple colours blended well with the surroundings. Autobots passed him by and did not even notice that he was there. However, his cover proved short-lived as a thunderous sonic boom suddenly shook the ground. The badly battered blue and white Seeker transformed and looked around. Stratonimbus picked himself up from his hiding spot and bolted over.

"Primus, Thundercracker, you look rough."

"I had an altercation with a team of Autobots on my way here. I managed to nail Aquaman while I was at it." The blue Seeker rubbed his arms and sighed heavily.

"Man, are you okay? You look like hell."

"I feel like it. I'm still recovering from the horror of being plastered against Optimus Prime's front grille yesterday. Look, there's been no sign of Sunstar so far. No one's heard from her. This has me a bit worried."

"Sunstar's usually good at taking care of herself," Stratonimbus reassured him.

"Usually is the operative word," he sighed heavily. "I'm contacting the team." The ground shuddered as bombs exploded nearby.

"You ought to return to the repair bay and get into CR. I can handle searching for her," Stratonimbus insisted. "I've commanded this team for over a year and I know what I'm doing."

"Pulling rank on me, are you?"

Stratonimbus nodded.

"Fine, I'll see you in about an hour." Thundercracker transformed and thundered away angrily.

"Stratonimbus calling the Seekers of Cumulonimbus, report your current status," the purple Seeker said, transforming into his jet mode. He gunned his engines and flew over the battlefield. It was strewn with bodies, both Autobot and Decepticons. Salvage teams were collecting the wounded and those who were stasis locked. Some looked bad, very bad. It was uncertain if they would make it or not. But medical science was such that rarely did a Transformer suffer a permanent death.

"Conundrum here. I've had me a really good day. Bagged me three bodies including Arkhawk, the pterodactyl."

"That's great Conundrum, but we have a problem. Sunstar is MIA."

"Sunstar? How long ago? Where?" Conundrum enquired.

"We don't know where, if we did we would have found her by now. Anyway, your so-called time teleportation won't work. She's been missing for a few hours."

"Hasn't anyone tried to triangulate her last known communications?"

"Hmmm, perhaps... return to base. Once everyone is together we'll plan our next move."

"Affirmative."

"Get off the line, Conundrum," came a rough voice, similar to Thundercracker's but deeper and much older. "Sunstar's missing?" The radio was filled with a deep and nearly incoherent muttering and grumbling.

"Yes, return to base and we will plan our search from there."

"I'm already on my way back to base, and I see Thundercracker..." he grumbled. "Oh, I took out Divebomb."

"Another pterodactyl?" Stratonimbus asked, surprised.

"Is that what it was?" Thunderfall enquired in a bermused tone.

"Hah," Conundrum quipped, "You should know what they are, you were around when they actually existed."

"Youths these days..." Thunderfall muttered absently into his communicator.

The Seekers arrived at the battered old building that Sunstar had purchased as their residence. Stratonimbus looked across to the CR chambers where Thundercracker, Whitespark, Windraker, Sunburst, and Thunderfall were recovering.

The rest of the team sat around a holotable that displayed the map of Autobot City and the surrounding area. One area was brightened.

"Darkstar has narrowed the area down to this sector. However, most of us are badly injured and we need immediate repair. As soon as these five are out of CR, we will send them out to attempt to locate her. Cumulonimbus will go over the battle plan with Thundercracker at that time. Those of you who need repair, do it now. I will be taking my own injuries into consideration as soon as Thundercracker has recovered fully. Until then, sweet dreams and good luck."

Return to chapter index

"One, two, three... to six... Ow," Thundercracker grumbled exiting the CR pod. "I prefer to gang up rather than be ganged up on," he muttered to Sunburst as he passed her.

"We had a heck of a time finding you," Sunburst said, chewing on an energy bar. "What happened?"

Thundercracker rubbed his helm for a moment. "We were outnumbered... well, I guess two-to-one odds are not that bad. -Polaris-, from commander Pulsar's team, took one of them out and that helped things a little but heck, he and the other guy were taken down. That left me and a ruddy great big T-Rex fighting. I really hate Dinobots... I particularly dislike the T-Rex ones." Thundercracker grabbed a handful of energon goodies and started to consume them slowly. "I got him, though," he smiled slightly. "Then they got me..."

"You got the Dinobot?" Sunburst enquired.

"Yeah, Grimlock -DINOBOTS- and some ground-hugging nobody," Thundercracker growled. "Why is it Autobots have such ugly alt modes?"

Sunburst shrugged. "I have no idea. I have never thought to ask them."

"Well, shoot first, ask questions later, then shoot again," Thundercracker said with a sharp nod. He turned to peek as another CR pod opened with a hiss. "Cumulonimbus," he greeted the older Seeker as he came out. "How long was he in there?" Thundercracker asked Sunburst.

She looked pensive for a moment. "Just under half an hour, I think." She glanced over at the wall clock, but that was pointless: it had long since stopped working. It was time they got a new clock, but Sunstar never did find a second to get it fixed or replaced. The comms panel lit up and Sunburst rushed over to receive the call.

"Yes, something like that," Cumulonimbus agreed, watching Sunburst out of the corner of his optic. "Thundercracker, things are not looking well at all at this point..."

"For us or for Sunstar?"

"Unfortunately both, my daughter is still missing. It is unlike me to feel this apprehension, but she would have contacted us by now if she was able." Cumulonimbus cocked his head and his optics took a momentary glazed look as he focused within himself. "I can't even find her mind," he murmured. "As for us, I helped remove a bit of a threat." Cumulonimbus dropped an energon-streaked claw on the table. "I hope that slows them down at least a little."

"Slag it, we have incoming wounded," Sunburst called as she hurried over to prepare the CR pods.

"Primus, I don't know how much more of this we can take," Thundercracker murmured in dismay.

"Do not let doubt cloud your mind, Thundercracker. That is the worst thing you can do and I know it is hard," Cumulonimbus said in a calm voice.

The front door whined as it opened. There was a curse and a further groaning and grinding as the door was forced open all the way. "Slag it, we need a better base," Stratonimbus complained as he thundered into the room.

Both he and Acidtwist were battered and leaking energon from many wounds. Stratonimbus was riddled with bullet holes and had a glowing energon arrow protruding from his wing. He winced as he slammed down a chunk of horn. "I ran into Swoop -DINOBOTS- again, and boy was he pissed off. He seemed to have found himself a partner this time: Steelcrusher. I got them both though."

Stratonimbus abruptly screamed in pain as Thundercracker snuck up from behind and yanked the energon bolt out of his wing. "Was that absolutely necessary?" the light purple Seeker demanded as he swung around on his commander.

"Well, it's out now," the blue Seeker responded.

"I can understand you are getting stressed, Thundercracker, but taking it out on us is hardly what I consider fair play. Especially those of us who have proven ourselves in battle," Acidtwist spat.

"You? Proven yourself?" Sunburst said, shaking her head. "I think I clearly recall one mission you cowered on the ground and covered your head screaming 'Please don't kill me Mr. Autobot' as they beat you senseless."

"Hah! You are mistaken, Sunbitch. I managed to get four 'bots this battle, including Fiorex."

"Really?" Sunburst said with a jerk of her head. "Whose kills did you sneak in on this time? Who did all the hard work so you can come along and claim it as your own? This very unlike you, Acidtwist, very unlike you."

"You are just jealous, Sunburst," Acidtwist hissed, aiming her poisonous paralyser fluids at the golden yellow Seeker. "You are jealous that you..."

Sunburst clenched her jaw and before anyone could react she had swung her fist right into the other femcon's face. Acidtwist staggered back and crumpled onto the floor. The rivalry between the two femcons had been practically non-stop since the day Sunburst joined the team.

"Sunburst," Thundercracker boomed, "that is enough."

"She can take out four Autobots and my one punch renders her senseless?"

"Sunburst..."

Sunburst threw fifty credits onto the table. "Here's to cover the extra CR charge for her," Sunburst snapped. She leaned down and grabbed Acidtwist by the intake, and dragged her into the repair bay.

Cumulonimbus sighed heavily. "If we could concentrate our aggressions for the enemy rather than our own team members, then maybe we would be doing a little more than what we have managed to do. This infighting is not helping us find Sunstar. This infighting is not doing much for our morale, and this infighting is giving me a fragging headache. So cut it out, all of you, or you will find out exactly what sort of temper I have. Understood?" Cumulonimbus' voice rose until he thundered. His fists emitted yellow sparks of electricity and his optics blazed. "Keep up with the pointless bickering and I will see to it that I take over this outfit and show you the true meaning of leadership."

Thundercracker stood for a moment, slack-jawed. "Uh... yeah, what you said," he agreed meekly.

"Help," came a faint projected voice in his mind. Cumulonimbus lifted his head in alarm. "It's Thunderstar... she's hurt," Cumulonimbus said. Before anyone could say anything, he teleported out. A few astro-seconds later he returned holding the young Seeker in his arms.

She was severely battered and was barely awake. "I... I think I saw her," Thunderstar said weakly. "I think I saw mother, on the outskirts of Autobot City." Her optics dimmed slightly and she struggled in the arms of Cumulonimbus.

"You think you saw?" Thundercracker said anxiously. "Or you did see?"

"Easy on the girl," Cumulonimbus urged. "She's badly injured."

"I... saw... I was fighting with Zephyr when I fired at override. When he fell, I saw her..." Thunderstar gasped, "she teleported, I tried to tell Zephyr, but she was helping me off the battlefield..." Thunderstar's optics went dim and the young femcon passed out.

"Get her into CR," Thundercracker said softly. "I will be heading out in a few minutes to where Thunderstar was."

"I recommend against it," Conundrum said, studying the radar maps.

"Why?"

"We have a storm system advancing. Judging by these readings, I expect the storms to be severe, extremely high winds, probable tornadoes. You can't fly in that..."

"Maybe one will touch down in Autobot City for us," Thundercracker exhaled and bowed his head. "How long will this system last?"

"Most of the evening and probably the whole night," Conundrum replied.

"Fine, okay, get some rest everyone. Tomorrow we start again." Thundercracker turned and stood looking out a cracked window pane. Somewhere, she was out there.

The CR pod opened and Sunstar found herself in a strange room. She looked around herself but everything was unfamiliar. Slowly, cautiously, she crept along the wall of the foreign repair bay. What is this place? she wondered to herself.

She made her way to a door and looked up at the symbol over head. It made her fuel run cold. Red symbol, a face that she had known all her life. The face of the enemy. She looked back at the CR pod then at the room once again.

She realised with a chill that it was not a repair bay after all; she was in fact in a laboratory. Am I an experiment? she pondered. Sunstar glanced at a steel flask that glinted in the bright fluorescent lights. She stopped and picked it up. She could see a face reflected back at her, her own face and suddenly it struck her like a ton of bricks. She was not even sure who she was.

She passed a locker with the word 'weapons' written in Autobot characters. She grabbed it and forced it open. Inside was an energon crossbow. She paused and studied it. "Yes..." she said, "I remember this." She caressed the weapon fondly. She recalled that bow weapons were her favourite. But it gave little insight into who she was and how she got there.

She opened the door of the lab and without warning an alarm klaxon sounded. She froze for a moment and instinctively she teleported to a safer location. She radar scanned before she exited the subspace wormhole to ensure her way was clear. She re-entered normal space and found herself immediately under attack.

"Where did she come from?" a voice asked.

"Who cares, we are equally matched now," replied another.

"Wait! That's Sunstar," a third voice said. "Thundercracker reported her missing to the council last night."

Sunstar was oblivious to the conversation. Instinctively she went into battle mode, firing her bow and kicking at a Dinobot as he thundered down on her position. Suddenly she felt a sickening crack as the Dinobot transformed and slammed into her with his head. His jaws closed on her wing and he flung her across the battlefield. She landed on her face, and lay there stunned for a few minutes before she slowly picked herself up off the ground.

The others were too busy engaged in fighting to be able to offer assistance. She was certain she had recognised a couple of them, but who they were would not come. She ran back to pick up her dropped crossbow and resumed fighting. Her body creaked and groaned as she battled. She gasped in pain as she was struck from behind by weapons fire. Sunstar remembered something. "Pain is a weakness," her thoughts informed her, "use it to your advantage."

Sunstar dropped to the ground and lay there twitching, then stopped moving. The Dinobot came over, and poked at her with his foot. "Drop dead, Sludge," she gasped as she fired an energon bolt into the Dinobot's chest. It jerked back and fell over with a crash.

She ached all over and yet her words, "pain's a weakness," kept goading her to battle on. The battle was soon finished and the other Decepticons gestured to her to follow, but she was not sure she knew them. She certainly did not feel she could trust them. She shook her head in negation and teleported herself away.

She entered a ruined building; it seemed empty but her scans detected a viable CR pod. She glanced around and hoped that no one would find her while she was resting. She hoped that the rest would give her some insight into who she was, what she was and why she was there. Sunstar turned on the timer and climbed in. The hatch closed over her and for a moment she felt the panic of claustrophobia before the CR sedation kicked in, putting her into a blissful sleep.

Thundercracker remained motionless looking out the cracked window as the storm raged. He wondered where Sunstar was and why she had not returned home. He had received a single report from the RDD member that Sunstar had indeed been spotted, but she seemed 'out of it' and no one knew where she had teleported to.

Thundercracker laid himself down on his recharge platform. "Tomorrow," he promised himself, "I will find her."

Return to chapter index

The CR pod opened up. The room was dark, but flashes of light could be seen through cracks in the walls and open windows. Thunder boomed non-stop; it sounded more like a bombing strike than a storm. Had she not seen the forks of lightning, she would have believed that it was a massive battle.

Sunstar crept cautiously to one of the windows and peeked out. It was hard to see anything and her tank was starting to send her low fuel warnings. CR pods did refresh the energy levels in the body but the tank was what kept the levels up.

She looked around. What base was it she wondered? If it was a Decepticon hold, it would have been plundered long ago. If it was an Autobot base, there could very well be a cache of energy stashed away somewhere.

She looked out the window again. Only 150km away was Autobot City. She had strong doubts that this was a Decepticon building. She lowered her head and kept herself close to the walls. She knew that she was in Autobot-held territory and if they found her, she would be a sitting duck. This problem was minor compared to her rapidly increasing levels of hunger. Sunstar, a seeker with teleportation abilities, had substantially larger fuel requirements than most.

She wandered to the back of the building. She found an empty ammunitions room, a weapons locker that had a few scattered grenade pins, and a cloth that was stained with gun oil. Another locker she forced open contained a few rather ill coloured energon cubes. She looked at them dubiously. Are they poisoned? she wondered. Sunstar leaned down and sniffed at a cube cautiously. They seemed to be fine to her olfactory sensors, but they were made from a crude energy. Far from refined, far from being high grade. This was a very poor quality low-grade source.

Sunstar took the cubes and returned to the CR pod chamber. Waste not, want not, she thought cheerfully. She sat herself down in a dark corner and quickly, hungrily, downed the cubes, making faces at the bitter and unpalatable flavour. "Autobots think we Decepticons have crap-flavoured energon. This stuff is disgusting... Hmmm," she looked at the empty cube frames. "Perhaps they are poisoned after all," she said with a slur. Her visuals went hazy and she found it hard to focus, and suddenly her optics went off line. Sunstar hiccupped, slumped over and finally passed out.

Thundercracker carried in a battered old generator. "I hope this will work," he said, depositing it on the table in the centre of the repair bay.

Thunderfall came over and poked at it. "It's a relic, but... it should work."

"I hope it works. Once we get Acidtwist restored to her normal spiteful self, we can get working on the other pods."

Thundercracker nodded. "We will restore those in critical condition first." He glanced over at Thunderstar, who lay motionless on the repair bay table. She had been brought back to her home base by members of the RDD. The mission had been won; however, Thunderstar and one other had gone down in the fight.

"Her fighting was sub-par and she was tightly strung," they had told Thundercracker as they brought her into the rundown base, "but with the current situation, who can blame her." Thundercracker carried the young femcon into the repair bay. "One thing though," they had told him, "she did manage to take out Red Rage.

Thunderfall pulled on the generator's ripcord and the machine started up with an irritatingly loud rumble. Thick, dark smoke billowed out of the exhaust and quickly filled the room. Thundercracker coughed, while Sunburst and Conundrum deposited the two stasis-locked Seekers into their pods and sealed them in.

In one hour, providing everything went well, they would be as good as new.

Whitespark exhaled in relief and became fully visible as the last Autobot went down. He did not feel that he had been performing well; however, despite his feelings, he was still the least damaged Decepticon on the field. The pale Seeker exhaled windily. He knew was not going to get much energon pay from this mission. He looked at the ground and picked up a half energon credit. He brushed it off and studied it for a moment, and he had a sudden idea.

The Seeker glanced over at the Autobots. He had never attempted to rob anyone before, but he figured that desperate times meant desperate measures.

He strode amongst the fallen Autobots and stopped by the Dinobot, Electroshadow. He opened a small command console on the Dinobot's wrist and tried a few pass codes. There was a opening in regular space that was loaded with all manner of slag. Whitespark rooted through it until he found what he was looking for: Credits. The pterodactyl was not rich, but he had enough to serve the Seeker's purposes. Whitespark looked around to see if anyone had noticed his crime and he quickly stashed the credits into his subspace.

Whitespark lived to gamble. He lived to drink and take the femcons out on late-night dates. However, femcons were not always as they seemed. Frequently he found himself in some alley without a credit to his name. The femcons frequently robbed him blind.

He flipped a glowing credit into the air. Tonight. He felt like he was going to be lucky in the casinos. The casinos... he thought, looking toward the sky and around at other battlefields. I should be looking for Sunstar... He glanced about again. But for all I know, she could be at the battle beasts arena.

Whitespark was about to lift off when his comm bleeped. "Thundercracker to Whitespark, do you copy?"

"Yes, Commander," he said brightly.

"What's your current condition?" Thundercracker enquired.

"I'm about..." he paused for a moment to activate his personal diagnostics. "I have twelve percent damage taken. I'm well, is there a problem?"

"Our CR pods are down. It will take a while to get everyone processed. We are taking in order of priority."

"Oh... I see," Whitespark said. He looked at himself and wondered what trouble he would get into if he tried to get into some of the classier casinos. "What are your orders?"

"Find Sunstar."

Whitespark nodded absently. "I will get to work then. Whitespark out," he smiled as he closed the communicator. He had an excuse to be out a bit later and he decided he would take advantage of it. He took a deep breath and launched into the sky. Whitespark transformed and rumbled off toward the gambling centre.

Return to chapter index

"Look what we found," Cumulonimbus rumbled angrily as he and Darkstar dragged in the unconscious body of Whitespark into the repair bay. The white Seeker was scuffed and marked as if he had been in a fist fight recently. Cumulonimbus heaved Whitespark up and dropped him heavily onto the exam table.

"Where?" Thundercracker demanded as he strode into the room, "Where did you find him?"

Darkstar shook his head as he looked the white Seeker over. "Outside the Battle Beasts Arena. In an alley," Darkstar informed his commander.

"No wonder he didn't return last night. Looks like he was mugged," Acidtwist observed tartly. "Serves him right, the fraternising dork. He think's he's Primus' gift to femcons."

"Shut your sniping and wake him up," Thundercracker ordered.

Sunburst smiled wickedly. She leaned and slapped Whitespark stingingly across the face. "Wake up, you moron."

His optics brightened, then dimmed and brightened again. "Hey... why did you do that for?" he murmured, lifting his hand to his cheek then to his helm. "Ugh, what the frag hit me?" he asked as he felt the dents in his armour.

"We don't know. Why don't you tell us?" Acidtwist snarled.

Whitespark pushed himself to a sitting position. "Oh, no... oh dear... they robbed me," Whitespark muttered. "They robbed me!" He hunted through his subspace pockets and looked at the others in pure dismay. "It's gone, it's empty..."

"You were gambling, weren't you?" Acidtwist demanded.

He cocked his head and made himself appear innocent. "Well... I might have been," he said, glancing at the others. "Why?"

"You might have? You might have?" Sunburst said with her hands resting on her hips. "Tell us the truth for once, Whitespark. You were gambling and you got in over your head. Cumulonimbus and Darkstar dragged your sorry aft home from an alley." She narrowed her optics, "You don't even have a credit to your name... Did you get kicked out or shutout?"

"I won... I won some credits. But there were these six Autob-"

Thundercracker shook his head. "I don't need to hear your excuses. You have been told, you have been warned and yet... frag, I need a drink." Thundercracker turned and thundered out of the repair bay. "Get him into the pod, I'll deal with him later."

Acidtwist looked at Whitespark. She shook her head then grabbed him and shoved him into a CR Pod. Whitespark struggled as she slammed the hatch over his head. "Enjoy your repair, you owe us two hundred credits," she hissed as she sealed the pod. Sunburst nodded and fired up the CR pod. Whitesparks's optics went dim and he fell into a CR-induced sleep.

The control room of the Seekers' home base was quiet while they waited for the team on active duty to come home, be dropped off or call for assistance. Sunburst and Acidtwist sat together and put aside their differences, at least for the time being. They decided they wanted to trade insults about males, focussing primarily on Whitespark.

Windraker gazed absently at the printer as it spat out a series of new orders. He pinned them up and looked them over. He scratched his conical head and tugged one off the board. He wandered over to Thunderstar and showed it to her. He smiled brightly as she nodded in approval and gave him a pat on his wing. Windraker was far from the brightest bulb in the pack, but he did do his job well.

Thundercracker ignored everyone and everything while he was working on his second cube. Drinking was an art, and Thundercracker had not mastered it. He enjoyed it on occasion, but he was considered a lightweight amongst Decepticons. However with all the trials and tribulations the team had been through in recent months, Thundercracker had managed to get his threshold to just over two cubes before passing out.

"Thunderfall is here," Thunderstar said. She turned to the dark grey conehead and smiled warmly. "Windraker, you can go now," she said clearly and slowly. As soon as the large, dark blue and black Thunderfall arrived, Windraker left.

"What a retard," Sunburst muttered and Acidtwist nodded.

Thunderfall entered the room. He held his head up high and smiled. He sat down in a vacant chair beside Thundercracker and took the rest of Thundercracker's cube. As it was very uncommon to find Thunderfall remotely cheerful, the other Seekers stopped what they were doing and joined the two. It seemed like there was some good news, and good news was what they were hoping for.

"You slagged something old mech?" Thundercracker asked.

"Better than that," Thunderfall rumbled in a happy tone. "I took out five Autobots. Even better than that is the fact I took out Godzukki."

"Primus, Thunderfall, he's just a fresh-off-the-line rookie."

"That is beside the point. He's a Dinobot," Thunderfall said with a hint of irritation, "Anyway, I was in the misison and Counterassult was the only bloke I knew. Not sure who all the other guys were." Thunderfall shrugged. "Not like the good old days..." He sounded wistful. "We were fighting these Autobots and this one Dinobot, sort of like the Grimlock you were telling me about, only a lot dumber."

Thundercracker groaned slightly. "He's just a youngster."

"Quit interrupting me, boy." Thunderfall snapped. "Counterassult and I were working together to weaken the Autobots and we took them all out ourselves. The other guys pretty much stood there watching us with their guns up their afts. I suppose they can learn something by watching two old pros, like Counterassult and me, working in tandem. That's teamwork. That's what it's all about." Thunderfall nodded in emphasis. "The Autobots were too brainless to know how to aim their weapons. Heck, Godzukki tried to hit me with his disruptor rifle. He held it like it was a club or something. Swung it at me and I ducked. Talk about one brainless Dinobot."

"That's because they were probably new recruits,"

Thunderfall ignored Thundercracker as he rubbed his head and jerked his thumb to his back. "Unfortunately, dodging that hit meant I didn't see that Seeker wannabe coming in for a strafing run."

Thundercracker nodded. "You know, old-timer, that's the most words I think I have ever heard you say." He exhaled and then continued, "Still, we are a mech short of a team. Get yourself repaired and then join me." Thundercracker stood up and pulled a mission order off the board and slipped it into subspace.

Sunstar laid curled up in the corner of the room with her arms clasped tightly across her chest. Her face and colours were pale and she shivered violently. She had located a few more cubes and consumed those. When she awoke in the middle of the night, she was in intense pain. Her fuel tank was a fury of activity with the chemical reaction between her system and the poisoned fuel. Suddenly her fuel tanks kicked into reverse and she ejected it noisily.

She crawled weakly from room to room trying to find her way back to the CR chamber. She froze for a moment and held her breath. She thought she heard a noise - a clatter of metal, a scrape of feet. She exhaled and struggled onward.

A beam of light shone into the room and she turned to look at where it came from. She was unable to see the figure behind the glare, but she braced for the killing shot.

"I've located our target and I'm bringing her in."

Sunstar was too weak to struggle. She sank to the floor, offlined her optics and waited.

Return to chapter index

Thunderfall flew into the Seeker base, severely damaged. Thundercracker was at his side, also badly damaged. Between them they carried the unconscious body of Sunstar, who had fallen into stasis shortly after Thunderfall had retrieved her.

"I would have got out of that area had it not been for those fraggin' Autobots," Thunderfall growled, painfully.

"You went into an Autobot trap and removed the bait - you were lucky to get out still functioning," Thundercracker reminded him.

"Still functioning... my aft." Thunderfall staggered and lost his grip on Sunstar. "I can't go any further," the Seeker said as he collapsed to the ground with a groan.

Stratonimbus ran forward and caught his sister in his arms, before she dropped on top of the old-timer. "Primus, the three of you... what the frag happened?" He took Sunstar into the CR chamber and slipped her gently into a CR pod, sealing her in. He turned back to Thundercracker, who was struggling to lift Thunderfall. Stratonimbus joined in to assist. "All I received was a half-garbled message."

"Thunderfall got ambushed as he was retrieving Sunstar. I was already on my way so I retrieved the two from the battlefield. I had been laid back by a small skirmish earlier."

"Was it a success or wasted effort?" Stratonimbus enquired.

"Success, he got Flipper," Thundercracker said as he opened an empty pod. "Primus, what happened to Cumulonimbus?"

"Fist fight... for the most part. He was focussing his attacks on Mega Leviathan, but the Autobots tried to protect the Dinobot and beat him senseless. He got the great oaf, but went down himself. Cumulonimbus fought well, for an old-timer."

Thundercracker nodded and looked into the CR pod that Sunstar lay in. "She'll be okay, right?"

"Sunstar is strong, she'll pull through," Stratonimbus said with a slight pat on the team commander's shoulder. "You need CR time yourself, and then Megatron wants someone on a mission ASAP, I would go, but you are the better mech for it. You'll be out in no time."

Thundercracker nodded and stepped into a pod. Stratonimbus sealed him in, then returned to the control room to receive orders.

Stratonimbus sighed as he read the command bulletin. It was still the same. Take Autobot City, while protecting the Constructions and killing the Dinobots. Seekers, however, were expendable. Stratonimbus shook his head. It disturbed him at how Seeker life was viewed to other Decepticons. Their sheer numbers gave them the automatic title of cannon fodder or throwaway lives. He had overheard some Decepticons talking about the Seekers in the past:

"They're only Seekers, They're only light build and light strength. They can attack in numbers and die in droves. They're good for distractions... and best of all, they don't have feelings. Seekers are all mindless drones."

"Yeah, well, we also have lives." Stratonimbus' cheek twitched angrily as he pinned the bulletins up.

A few hours later and Sunstar had exited CR in poor shape. Despite her body being repaired she still seemed confused, frightened and in great pain. Darkstar rendered her unconscious again. They worked quickly, between the return of the unit's members. It had been a harsh day for the Seekers and very few came back under their own power.

"The toxin has permeated too many of her systems," the resonate voice of Thunderfall said. "I'm flushing her fuel tanks out to remove residue, but it was some pretty heavy slag."

Darkstar nodded in agreement. "Must have been, to still remain in her system despite the CR repair cycle. Hang on -" Darkstar glanced up from diagnostic equipment. "- her synaptic readings are all over the chart. Her mind is chaos," he said, handing the printed report over to Thunderfall. Flushing her fuel lines was the next and most tedious part.

"Hmmm," Thunderfall rumbled. "I've seen readings like this before." He glanced over at Windraker who was cleaning a Dol-laser rifle.

Darkstar followed his wingmate's glance. "You think she's brain damaged?"

"It is possible. Either by the toxin or the blow to the head. Look here," Thunderfall pointed to the back of the Seeker's helm."CR pods can repair a lot of damage, but some damage takes much longer to self-repair. It looks like she took too many rams." Thunderfall finished connecting the hoses and started the flush.

"Thundercracker isn't going to be happy," Darkstar commented.

"Do you blame him? We've been searching for her in the wrong direction and when we do get her, she was poisoned by an AWC trap..."

"If her memory is hampered we might need to do a reset then," Darkstar suggested with some apprehension. "She only just got some upgrades to her system a few weeks ago."

Thunderfall shook his head. "We might be able to get her memory back in order with an upgrade and then another run of CR," Thunderfall muttered as he turned off the pumps and started the slow refuelling process. "We better have her fully functioning by the time Thundercracker wakes up from CR."

Darkstar cocked his head and exhaled. "We need a break. Once the remaining troops are in and repaired, we will have a few drinks and then resume tomorrow morning."

Thunderfall nodded. "Help me get her back into this pod," he said after injecting her with a heavy sedative into her fuel lines. "She won't wake up until tomorrow anyway."

Darkstar nodded and assisted in transferring Sunstar from the repair table to the pod.

Return to chapter index

Sunstar awoke in her private chamber. Her head buzzed as if she had a massive hangover and her vision was a bit off. She sat up and shook her head and looked around. It was home: her few personal effects decorated a table and her energon crossbow hung on the wall. She forced the pain to the back of her mind as she thought, pain is a weakness.

Thundercracker wandered in and shook his head. "You had us worried, girl. Do you recall who I am?"

Sunstar nodded and rubbed her face with her palm. "Thundercracker..." she exhaled softly. "I don't remember anything. The past few days are... a blurr." Sunstar pushed herself to her feet and reached for her crossbow.

Thundercracker nodded. "You had a rough time, but you should be fine now. They said you had a few memory issues... you have a bit more courage than you realised."

Sunstar nodded. "Well, we'll see how well that serves me." She grabbed a handful of crossbow bolts, loaded some into the weapon and stashed the rest away into subspace. "I have a battle to win, Thundercracker. I might remind you that you also have a war to win. We cannot let those lumbering goons crush us, remember that."

Thundercracker nodded. "I thought you'd say something like that." He handed Sunstar her orders. "I will fly with you to the staging grounds and then I have to get to mine," he smiled.

"Collecting armour again?" Sunstar enquired with a teasing smile, as she looked at his orders. "You always go on armour gathering runs."

"Eh, it's a job this old mech can do well."

Sunstar smiled and nodded.

"You think you can manage?" he enquired.

She nodded with a big smile.

The air was cool as Sunstar and her battle unit gathered and waited in ambush. It was a clear sky day and the cover was rather dubious. She exhaled as the enemy closed in. Her fingers twitched in readiness as she waited for the right moment.

Suddenly an Autobot voice called out and they started to fire upon the Decepticons' formerly secret location. She flattened herself to the ground and cursed as a Decepticon near her got hit.

The thundering sound of heavy feet hammered on the ground; she looked over her rock and spotted a triceratops charging in toward the melee, wielding a mace. He cried out as he started his attack, slamming a Decepticon hard... Sunstar stood up and fired. The reptile stumbled and then staggered as another Decepticon targeted him.

Sunstar teleported from her covered location across the field, being careful to check for obstacles before returning to normal space. She emerged and was suddenly ambushed by an Autobot. "The Dinobot is ours, femcon," the Autobot snarled. He lashed out at her with his foot.

Sunstar bit back a cry of pain and hopped slightly. "Wanna bet?" she said, as she whirled and fired her bolt at the lumbering Dinobot. He groaned and dropped to the floor. "He's mine now," she grinned wickedly.

"Hey!" the Autobot shouted. "All Autobots, target the Seeker femcon and take her down! She got TriSpear!"

Sunstar turned and took out another Autobot as they ganged up on her. She found herself brought to her knees from shots by the ever-powerful Dol-lasers. She struggled to stand up as an Autobot who wore the mark of the AWC walked up to her, confident and smug. He looked at her and sneered. "Take this, RDD wench." He kicked her full in the canopy. The amethyst glass shattered and Sunstar collapsed into a heap on the ground. Slag, was her final thought.

Thundercracker shook his head as he collected Sunstar off the battlefield. "I should have sent you on the Armour mission, you would have done well," he sighed as he collected her crossbow.

Whitespark suddenly appeared across from Sunstar. "We all get our moments," he said.

"I didn't think, you know? She has been injured and only just recovered. I should have given her the easier mission and taken the ambush myself," Thundercracker murmured regretfully. "Poor girl."

"You could have sent me," Whitespark suggested. "I would be good for ambushes with my invisibility."

"You're not even qualified for the mission," Thundercracker retorted.

Whitespark shrugged and kicked the earth with his foot. "I could suffer a few upgrades now," he said hopefully.

Thundercracker shook his head. "Thunderfall has priority on upgrades first. Now, grab Sunstar and get her home," he ordered.

Whitespark looked visibly disappointed as he collected Sunstar. "Hey, where are you going?" he asked as Thundercracker turned to take off. "I'm collecting the teeth of Red Rage. Maybe, I might make Sunstar a necklace of Dinobot teeth and claws," he said.

"Do pterodactyls even have teeth?"

Thundercracker looked pensive for a moment, then shrugged. Without another word, he took off.

Return to chapter index

It was fierce fighting, the war of Autobot City, and the Seekers were finding themselves at a severe disadvantage. Fatigued from days of fighting, searching for Sunstar and the constant hunt for the Dinobots, many hours of rest in the CR pods accounted for most of their down time. Pay was still coming in at a reasonable rate, but they were suffering full outages for missions fought. A couple of times the Seekers had returned battered and unconscious without a energon credit to show.

As the days went by it seemed that the team was slowly losing ground. Where had the enemy gone to? The Seekers had asked themselves the question and it was argued that perhaps the Dinobots had been killed off or were regrouping for a final assault.

The Seekers themselves fell back for a few days and gathered themselves for one final massive assault on the Autobot base.

Cumulonimbus said again as they flew into battle, as he once said in his rallies so many aeons ago at the start of the last great war:

"Seekers, we may be weak as individuals, but in numbers we become the most formidable fighting force imaginable. We will strike fear into all those who oppose us. We will destroy all those who stand in our way. Anything that we want can be ours. All you need to do is stand up and fight. Fight for your nation. Fight for the greater glory of the Decepticons."

Return to chapter index