Cybertron Girls

by SonicSpeedster97

Endangered Species

Things in Canterlot had been fairly quiet since the girls and the Autobots were welcomed semi-officially into the G.I. Joe program, as their search across the planet continued for Cybertronian artifacts, as well as the components of the Omega Lock. All the while, Twilight was helping Wheeljack and Perceptor to complete the connections between the Ark’s communications systems and the Joes’ in an effort to try and contact Cybertron, as well as trying hard to fit the GroundBridge for interstellar transit.

But so far, things weren’t going very well; they’d managed to overhaul and cross-connect the com systems enough to attempt contact with Cybertron, but the frequency tests were slow-going. “This is Perceptor aboard the Autobot starship Ark on planet Earth broadcasting to Cybertron. Squadron Virago, please come in.” Perceptor called, but to no response. “Frequency Solus-3-9; no response. Now proceeding to Frequency Solus-4-0.”

“I hate to say this Perceptor, but I’m getting really bored.” Twilight shrugged. “Wouldn’t it be easier just to have Teletraan do this and notify us of a hit?”

“I would expect you to realize Twilight, that science is rarely an easy endeavor. Especially the science of interstellar communications.” Perceptor countered.

“Eh, I gotta agree with the kid on this one Perceptor.” Wheeljack shrugged. “We’ve been at this for days, and in all that time, we haven’t heard a peep from Cybertron. Maybe that hail we got from Greenlight was a pre-recorded message that the probe just picked up on out of nowhere.”

“Doubtful. Especially regarding the genuine-sounding nature of Greenlight’s response.” Perceptor countered. “The Virago are alive, and I intend to prove it to satisfy our commander.”

“Right; you do that. I’ll check in with our other teams.” Twilight noted as she opened another com-line. “Rainbow Dash, time for your check-in.”

---

Rainbow was currently flying miles over the jungles of northern India with Jetfire and Powerglide. “If you’re calling about Rhinox, we still haven’t found him yet.” The team had learned from Airazor’s files that Rhinox had taken on the form of an Indian rhino, so they’d been combing the jungles for a good few days to find him.

“How hard is it to find one Eukarian in the form of an endangered rhino?” Twilight asked seriously.

“You wanna switch posts with one of us and find out?” Jetfire smirked.

“Not particularly,” Twilight remarked. “Well, nice to see we’re all equally annoyed at our teams’ lack of progress.”

“We’ll let you know when and if we find something.” Powerglide reported, cutting off the signal. “I hate to say this, but she’s got a point. We’ve been scanning this jungle for four days, and we still haven’t even picked up any Energon readings, let alone a Spark signature.”

“Just because we haven’t found anything yet doesn’t mean we won’t find anything at all, Powerglide.” Jetfire reminded.

“Yeah, say that again tomorrow when we still haven’t found anything.” Rainbow countered.

Jetfire was about to retort when his scanners started toning; he’d found something. “You were saying?” he smirked as he looped and dove to investigate.

Rainbow rolled her eyes as she and Powerglide followed him down. “If this turns out to be a trap, I swear I’m gonna tell Prowl.”

“I didn’t think you were on his good side enough to rat other bots out to him yet.” Powerglide remarked.

“Calm down, both of you,” Jetfire assured as he swooped and transformed, landing perfectly on the jungle floor as the other two landed next to him while he checked his scanner. “This definitely isn’t a trap. Last time I checked, Megatron didn’t have any Eukarians on the Nemesis, and this Spark-signature’s distortions are practically identical to the ones we detected from Airazor and Cheetor. It’s Rhinox alright. Question is, where exactly is he?”

“You’re not gonna find out, Autobot.” That voice frightened the team as they all circled up, just in time for three familiarly black and purple Decepticons to emerge from the jungle.

“And the scanners didn’t pick up the Insecticons because?” Rainbow remarked angrily.

“Gimme a break; they were the size of micro-Scraplets. Spark-scanners don’t work all that well on stuff that small.” Jetfire countered, glancing over at the one Insecticon with two large silver mandible-like antennae. “You’re here for Rhinox, aren’t you Shrapnel?”

“If this Omega Lock he’s protecting is powerful enough to revive Cybertron, then who knows what it could do to other planets?” Shrapnel remarked.

“You’re not gonna find out, bugbrain,” Rainbow assured as she readied her hip-guns. “Especially not on this planet.”

The Insecticon with wings on his shoulders chuckled madly. “Autobot madness,” he said. “You honestly still think you can come anywhere close to defeating us?”

“We don’t just think we can beat you, Kickback,” Jetfire assured as he raised his blaster. “I know we can.”

“We’ll see about that.” Shrapnel smirked. “Light ‘em up, Insecticons!” The bugs opened fire on the Autobots, who quickly shot into the air on their boosters to avoid the enemy fire and to return fire themselves.

“Everyone keep those Spark readings on your sensors!” Jetfire ordered. “We have to find Rhinox and get outta here!”

“Assuming the Insecticons haven’t already wounded him too badly for us to move.” Powerglide reminded. “Fairly standard tactic for the enemy to wound an objective target to avoid their acquisition.”

“You’re paranoid, Powerglide,” Rainbow assured.

“No, I’ve just been in the field longer; I know how people think on missions like this.” Powerglide assured… before he heard the loud screaming of engines. He looked to the horizon and saw a large wing of black and red fighters flying toward them, weapons hot. “Night Adders; get down!” The other two flyers quickly dropped into the jungle after Powerglide as the Night Adders fired on the team.

“What the heck are Night Adders?” asked Rainbow.

“Cobra aircraft; they can turn on a dime and pack some serious heat.” Powerglide explained as he turned on his coms. “Pit, this is Powerglide; we got Night Adders and Decepticons in India blocking a rescue mission. I need Skystrikers here now; marking my position.”

“Solid copy, Powerglide. This is Ace; inbound now.” the pilot assured. “ETA; four mikes.”

“Copy. You heard ‘im, guys; hold these buckets off for at least four minutes!” Powerglide ordered as he drew his gun, firing into the jungle after the Insecticons as Rainbow and Jetfire fired into the sky against the Night Adders.

“Ah, this takes me back. Battle of Mithril Forest; remember that Powerglide?” asked Jetfire.

“Hard to forget. Lost a lot of good Autobots that night.” Powerglide remarked. “At least we have better lighting this time.”

“Not sure how much that’s gonna help,” Rainbow remarked.

Powerglide smirked as he heard more engines roaring from above. “Maybe not, but those will.” Right on cue, a massive wing of Skystrikers flew in and opened fire on the Adders and the Insecticons, shooting them back into the jungle. “Glad to have ya here so fast, Ace.”

“Orbital launch, Powerglide.” Ace smirked over the coms. “Moves a pilot faster than anything else on earth.”

“How long can you hold them off?” asked Rainbow.

“Just long enough for you to find your objective and get outta here. We got this. Ace out.”

“Right; let’s move. Rhinox must be around here somewhere.” Jetfire assured as the team moved onward through the jungle on foot, following the readings on Jetfire’s scanners.

Finally, the readings peaked and Rainbow looked behind a tree. “There he is.” Sure enough, there behind a tree was a large Indian rhino who appeared to be leaking Energon from his foreleg.

Quickly Jetfire was the first to approach. “Rhinox?” The rhino growled in anger at the jet-bot approaching. “Whoa-whoa-whoa, easy; we’re friendlies. Airazor and Cheetor sent us.” He tapped his Autobot badge to prove it.

“Nice to see some friendly grilles after so long on this rock.” That voice came not from the rhino on the ground, but from behind the Autobots. They looked and saw an injured Maximal with what looked like a rhino’s jaw on his chest, and Energon dripping from his left wrist.

Rainbow looked closer and saw that the rhino simply had a bruised ankle, and Rhinox had dressed it up with Energon from his own wound to make it look like him. “You’re a clever one, aren’t you?”

“Can’t afford not to be, not with the Decepticons after us Maximals now more than ever,” Rhinox assured, showing the team his capsule. “Must be really interested in getting the AllSpark soon.”

“Yeah, let’s just hope you’re actually carrying it.” Jetfire nodded. “Either way, we’ve gotta get back to base.” Quickly he hopped on the coms to call for their ride. “Jetfire to base; we found Rhinox. Requesting GroundBridge.”

“I am afraid that is impossible, Jetfire; we still have numerous calculations to run to ensure that the SpaceBridge is functional,” Perceptor assured. “These calculations require that we open the SpaceBridge for at least three hours to test the aperture.”

“That wasn’t a suggestion, Perceptor! You can run the tests once we’re back, now get us back or so help me-!” Jetfire ordered.

“Alright-alright; don’t burst a valve Jetfire,” Wheeljack assured as the GroundBridge opened nearby. “There. Happy?”

“Remarkably. Tell Ratchet to prep Sick Bay for a patient; Rhinox is wounded. And tell Optimus to prep to open his capsule.” Jetfire ordered as Rainbow slung Rhinox’s good arm over her shoulder.

“We’re done here, Ace; shake the bandits and bug out back to base.” Powerglide ordered the Joes.

“Copy that. You heard the bot, boys; back to base.” Ace ordered, prompting the Skystrikers to all break off and fly away back the way they came as the Night Adders flew after them.

The Insecticons tried to attack the Autobots as they fled into the GroundBridge, but too late as the portal closed behind them. “Megatron’s not gonna like this.” Shrapnel noted.

---

The base however was glad to have the away team back, as Rhinox was escorted to Sick Bay by Lifeline and Optimus prepared to open his capsule, revealing a pronged blue crystal-like object, bringing the component list up to three – including the silver block from Cheetor’s cubic piece with four small keyholes on the sides. The Autobots knew they still required at least two more pieces and the AllSpark to unlock the map to the Galaxy Keys, but at the rate things were going so far, that was looking remarkably easy.

Comments

[OP Omni God-Emperor Doom]

“ How hard is it to find one Eukarian in the form of an endangered rhino? ” Twilight asked seriously.

Twilight is rather being rude lately!

[OP Omni God-Emperor Doom]

“Gimme a break; they were the size of micro-Scraplets. Spark-scanners don’t work all that well on stuff that small.” Jetfire countered, glancing over at the one Insecticon with two large silver mandible-like antennae. “You’re here for Rhinox, aren’t you Shrapnel?”

Or Sharpshot.

[OP Omni God-Emperor Doom]

“Nice to see some friendly grilles after so long on this rock.” That voice came not from the rhino on the ground, but from behind the Autobots. They looked and saw an injured Maximal with what looked like a rhino’s jaw on his chest, and Energon dripping from his left wrist.

Stop insulting earth! Geez!