“How we doin’, Scrap Iron?”
It wasn’t often that the forces of Cobra found themselves so close to civilization in public, but it was of no consequence to Destro; he only wanted to finish the assignment he had received from the Commander and in-turn from Megatron, which was why he had several armored mech-suits from his munitions company out digging in the mountains near Seattle as the Decepticon soldier known as Astrotrain watched.
“How we doin’, Scrap Iron?”
Destro’s lieutenant Scrap Iron looked at his leader, his half-burned face still as off-putting as ever. “Slow-going, sir. We designed these suits for warfare, not mining; not exactly the smoothest transition.”
“I realize that but we need that relic,” Destro ordered. “If nothin’ else, I wanna see what it can do before we ship it off to Megatron.”
“Are you sure you have your men digging in the right place, Destro?” Astrotrain asked as he looked at his scanner. “I’m not picking up anything.”
“Your boss gave us the coordinates, Astrotrain. We’re just followin’ the map.” Destro assured.
It was just then that one of the drills mounted to the mechs started grinding as if it had hit metal. “Destro! We’ve hit something!”
“Ah, wonderful work, boys.” the metal-faced weapons dealer smiled. “Yer boss is about to get his money’s worth, Astrotrain.”
Unfortunately for Destro, his team wasn’t the only one who found something on that dig; Wheeljack and Hound had been working on the computer when they got a loud tone that astounded the engineer. “Optimus, we got somethin’ down here you’re gonna wanna see!” Hound called, drawing the Prime down to the hangar computer, as well as Ironhide, Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, and Sunset.
“What is it, Wheeljack?” Optimus asked.
“We just picked up a Cybertronian tracking signal. From the data signature, it looks like it’s from the Iacon Hall of Records.” Wheeljack remarked.
“Hall of Records? Isn’t that where you worked before the war?” Sunset asked Optimus.
“And the place where some of Cybertron’s most sacred relics and dangerous weapons were placed under lock and key,” Optimus confirmed. “In order to keep them out of Decepticon hands, Alpha Trion launched them from Cybertron, with the hopes that we would find them first.”
“Well, it looks like someone found one of them.” Hound remarked. “Question is who?”
“Let’s find out. Teletraan, give me a satellite visual of the coordinates.” Wheeljack ordered, a visual display easily coming up on the screen.
And once Hound’s optics locked on the mechs, they narrowed in rage. “Cobra. That’s Destro, the Cobra Commander’s top weapons designer.”
“And that’s not the only familiar face. Look; Astrotrain’s there too.” Wheeljack remarked, focusing the feed on the ‘Con. “He’s one of the top Cons on the Nemesis.”
“Megatron has formalized an alliance with Cobra. This cannot go unanswered.” Optimus scowled.
“I’m already on it, Prime.” Hound assured, tuning the coms to a specific channel. “Pit, this is Hound; come in.”
“You got Cover Girl, Hound; go ahead.”
“Priority Ultra, Cover Girl; we need Alpha Team three kliks east of Seattle.” Hound explained. “Cobra’s officially joined up with the Decepticons, and they dug up something they shouldn’t have.”
“Roger that; dispatching Alpha team. And somethin’ tells me you’re gonna need more cavalry than that, so I’m sendin’ Bravo too.” Cover Girl reported. “ETA; two mikes.”
“Copy that. We’ll head over there for rendezvous ASAP.” Hound assured, terminating the link. “Wanna bring the Wreckers, Optimus?”
“I don’t think we should; nothing says ‘covert’ like giant explosions.” Twilight brought up.
“Just ‘cause we’re infamous for trashin’ stuff doesn’t mean we don’t know when to use stealth,” Springer assured as he walked into the hangar. “Besides, the Cons obviously don’t care about people seein’ ‘em.”
“We’re not the Cons.” Applejack countered.
“You wanna get crushed, or do you wanna see how the Wreckers do against an enemy that actually fights back instead of just running off with their tailfins between their legs like Starscream?” Springer remarked, looking out to the Wreckers and other girls who were working on the Xantium. “Hey Kup, Roadbuster, we got a mission! Get in here!”
“Yes sir!” Roadbuster nodded as he tromped in.
“Alright, alright; I’m comin’.” Kup shrugged.
“What are you doing to your ship anyway?” asked Sunset.
“Just some retrofitting.” Springer shrugged. “Ya never know when you might need a Nova-class cruiser to show up and rain fire. And unless the tech team can get that SpaceBridge up and running, a working hyperdrive is gonna be our best bet to get anywhere in the galaxy.”
“Speaking of the SpaceBridge, how’s it coming Wheeljack?” asked Rarity.
“Slow; I think we’re close to having enough Energon, but we can’t seem to nail down the proper calculations on the aperture.” Wheeljack shrugged. “Simulations have all been cataclysmic flops; at this point, the only way to know for sure it will work is with a test run, but I don’t wanna risk that until I have a bit more time to narrow things down.”
“We will ensure you have all the time you need.” Optimus nodded as the GroundBridge lowered into place and activated to the coordinates. “Autobots, Transform and Roll Out!” On that order, the team all switched into their vehicle-modes, allowing the girls to see the Wreckers’ chosen modes; Springer was apparently a Triple-Changer with an armored roadster mode, Roadbuster had chosen an Oshkosh M-ATV truck, and Kup was a 1948 Chevy pickup truck, all of which rumbled through the vortex with the other Autobots, dropping them roughly thirty yards from the dig-site.
Springer quickly dropped to the dirt and looked through a set of large binoculars at the dig site. “Hmm… I think I can see why the beacon went off,” he remarked. “Must’ve been rigged to start signaling when someone dug it up.”
“Question is how did the Decepticons get the coordinates for this one?” asked Sunset.
“The Decepticons acquired a list of the coordinates during the final raid on Iacon,” Optimus remembered. “They have been attempting to decode it ever since. This may simply be the first of who knows how many relics scattered across the world.”
“Then we’d better make sure we get them first,” Ironhide noted.
“My thoughts exactly.” Hound smiled when he heard that voice behind him. And there was Duke, and the rest of the Joes’ Alpha Team, as well as a second team; a Caucasian man in a beret, a titan of an African man with an M2 Browning, a much smaller man with eyes that looked Asian with a bandana, a brunette woman with a heavy reflex crossbow, a woman in a red ninja gi, and a man with a thick blonde mustache and leather cowboy hat.
“Glad you made it, Joes.” Hound smiled, watching what appeared to be a small GroundBridge vortex fading. “Micro-GroundBridge working alright?”
“Like a dream, Hound.” Duke smiled.
“Wait, since when did you guys have a GroundBridge?” asked Sunset.
“Since Breaker and Wheeljack became best tech-buddies,” Duke remarked, turning to the other bots. “Nice to see you guys again. See some new faces.”
“This wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with the new underwater crater off the Mexican coast, would it?” asked the man in the beret.
“Fraid so, Flint.” Hound smiled, glancing at the new bots. “Sorry to say you guys aren’t the only Spec Ops we bots have to rely on anymore. Say hello to the Wreckers.”
“Well, we’re some of the best soldiers this country has to offer,” Flint assured. “I’m Flint, that’s Roadblock, Tunnel Rat, Lady Jaye, Jinx, and Wild Bill. We’re G.I. Joe’s Bravo Team.”
“Well, let’s hope you live up to all the stories Hound’s told us,” Kup smirked as he pulled two large plasma SMGs off his back.
“Only one way to find out. Cover Girl gave us the basic rundown, but what exactly have the Cons dug up?” asked Duke.
“Not sure yet.” Hound shrugged.
“I can think of a good way to find out.” Lady Jaye noted as she loaded a special-looking bolt onto her crossbow, quickly firing it into the dig pit where it landed right behind a small tent, where no one would think to look before it quickly collapsed down.
“Nice shot, Lady Jaye.” Duke smiled, turning to Optimus and the other bots. “Microphone bolt; picks up on anything anyone says in its perimeter and transmits it to our coms; channel 15.”
The bots quickly got the message and tuned their coms to the same channel, watching and listening closely as the mechs carefully pulled the strange bronze-like orb out of the ground. “Well, this is an interesting find,” Astrotrain remarked.
“How d’ya mean? What exactly is this thing?” asked Destro.
Astrotrain didn’t answer directly, he just activated his communicator and smiled. “Lord Megatron, we’ve found the relic. It appears to be an ancient Energon Harvester.”
“Excellent work, Astrotrain. Ensure the device is safe to transport and then bring it to the Nemesis as soon as possible.” The Autobots were a bit surprised to hear Megatron’s voice in their coms, but at least now they knew what they were doing.
“Understood, my lord.” Astrotrain nodded, turning off his coms.
“‘Energon Harvester’?” asked Destro.
“An original version, from long before the war began,” Astrotrain noted as he looked at the device. “Principle looks the same as the modern models though; all you do is point it at anything containing Energon, click the trigger, and the device instantly vaporizes, siphons, and redistills the liquid Energon inside. After that, you just flush it out for containment or recrystallization into cube-form and repeat.”
“Anythin’ containin’ Energon, ya say?” asked Destro. “Like, say, some hapless Autobots?”
“Precisely.” the Decepticon nodded menacingly.
“I see. Well, seems a bit dangerous, dontcha think?” asked Destro. “Not to mention time-consumin’.”
“How do you mean?” asked Astrotrain.
“Well, if ya misfire the thing among yer allies, ya risk drainin’ the life outta one of yer own.” Destro brought up. “And if ya have to flush it out after every use, that’s plenty of time wasted that ya could be usin’ to mine or drain more Energon. And I’m sure aimin’ the thing is a hassle in itself.”
“Oh? And I suppose you can do better?” asked Astrotrain.
“I can certainly at least try to bring it up to modern specs.” the weapons designer noted. “Maybe make it cube the stuff on the run.”
“Well, that would certainly be a time-saver,” Astrotrain remarked. “Are you sure you can do it?”
“I’ll see what I can do. Gimme three days, maybe more?” he shrugged in response. “Might need some engineering assistance from your crew.”
“I’ll see who’s available,” Astrotrain noted, getting back on his coms. “Lord Megatron, Destro has assured me that if he can have at least three days and Decepticon technical expertise, he can upgrade the Harvester to meet modern standards.”
“Do not leave the side of the device until the work is finished,” Megatron ordered. “Once it is finished, you and Blast Off are to deliver it straight to me.”
“As you wish, my lord.” Astrotrain nodded, looking down at the metal-faced human. “Your terms are accepted. Load up the device and direct me to your nearest factory.” With that, Astrotrain strode to the nearby train tracks, the presence of which made sense very quickly when he transformed into a Tsubame 800 bullet train engine, creating a passenger carriage, boxcar, and several flat cars behind him out of holomatter.
“All aboard, boys!” Destro ordered as he made his way to the train, climbing into the evil engine’s cabin. The other men quickly broke down the site and moved to pack up their equipment on the train.
“Time’s up, Prime; we need to get in there before they get away with that thing,” Duke ordered.
“Agreed. Autobots, Astrotrain does not leave this valley.” Optimus ordered.
“On it, Prime. Light ‘em up, Roadbuster!” Hound ordered, his stinger missiles arming and locking onto target at the tracks below in front of Astrotrain while Roadbuster aimed his large shoulder-mounted cannon behind the train. With a twitch, a massive grenade fired from the cannon as several stinger missiles shot from Hound’s backpack and both blasted up the tracks around the Decepticons.
Once immobile, the train was quickly surrounded as the Autobots and Joes raced down the ridge, covering the bot and crew with their weapons. “Give it up, Destro; there’s nowhere to go.” Flint barked.
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that.” the metal man remarked as he raced back in the train and opened the boxcar, aiming the Energon Harvester at Optimus. “Time fer a test-drive.”
With a simple slam on the large trigger button, the Harvester roared to life and fired a massive blue beam out at the Prime, stunning him as several small trails of vaporized Energon flew from his body along the beam toward the orb itself, weakening the Prime. “Optimus!” Ironhide yelled in concern and quickly raised his blaster, but the shots just bounced off a forcefield Astrotrain erected around his cargo.
“Well, I think that just scored you some good boy points in my book, Destro,” Astrotrain smirked as a GroundBridge suddenly appeared right in front of him. “Excellent timing as always, Soundwave.” With a honk of his train horn, the Decepticon roared through the vortex as the Joes and Autobots tried to fire on him, none of their shots connecting as the vortex closed.
“Gah! Great. We lost ‘em. Now what?” asked Applejack.
“Now we get Optimus back to base,” Ironhide ordered, pulling the horribly weakened Prime to his feet. “Wheeljack, send the GroundBridge. Tell Ratchet to get the medical bay ready; Optimus needs a massive Energon infusion.”
It wasn’t long before the team was back on the Ark, and Optimus was hooked up to what the girls guessed was a Cybertronian IV drip filled with Energon, flowing back into his body. “He’s stable for now, but I don’t know how long our medical Energon supplies will last.” Ratchet reported. “Optimus was a big enough bot before he was named Prime, and now? Well, I’m worried about him.”
“Don’t you bots have any organs that can regenerate Energon? Like some sort of skeletal marrow or something?” asked Twilight.
“Of course we do, but cyber-marrow has its limits.” Ratchet assured. “Even with it and this infusion, he’s going to need at least three days to get back to full power.”
“Alright, so what do we do in the meantime?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“We start hitting MARS facilities until we find that Harvester,” Duke ordered, turning to Lady Jaye. “Lady Jaye, get on the coms and put me through to base; tell Cover Girl and Dial Tone that I need a list of all known MARS facilities on the face of the earth. We’ll blow ‘em all to ashes one by one if we have to.”
“Maybe we won’t have to,” Sunset noted as she looked around.
“What do you mean?” asked Springer.
“Well, I know we brought Spike, but… where is he?” Sunset was right; Spike was nowhere to be seen.
“Oh, tell me he didn’t…” Twilight said in great worry.
“If he did, it makes our job way easier.” Tunnel Rat remarked. “You got him chipped?”
“Better than that; he’s wearing a Spark-Shift Armor too,” Sunset remarked.
“Track the armor, we find Spike and the Harvester.” Twilight realized. “That dog is a genius!”
“Might be harder than that.” Hound remarked. “Destro’s a weapons manufacturer, so most of his facilities are shielded from standard sensor arrays. And with the Decepticons overseeing this new project, they’ve probably got all sorts of top-notch Cybertronian shielding tech on top of that. We’ll probably only find them if Spike can get beyond those shields.”
“Don’t worry, Spike’s a smart dog,” Twilight assured. “Once he figures that out for himself, he’ll run for the nearest door like nobody’s business.” She may have said that, but she was secretly praying that was the case.
Thankfully her prayers were in good faith; Spike had indeed hitched a ride on Astrotrain and hidden under a seat near the rear door of the passenger car, and after the round trip to the Nemesis to show Megatron the loot from the dig, Astrotrain had been sent to a MARS manufacturing facility in Missoula where the men disembarked to unload the cargo before the Decepticon transformed. This bustle of activity gave Spike the perfect opportunity to jump off the train and hide elsewhere in the factory. He knew just as well that his best chance of rescue and protecting the others was to make it outside and somehow signal for a ride, but first, he had to find a way out.