Unknown Territory (TFP)

16

ENTRY:1/5/2021

A/N: Everything will be explained by the end of the chapter as to not spoil this story so hang in there!

Not too long after Lightblade had finished her journal entry, she dozed off on the stacks. Bulkhead and Arcee were sent on a mission to intercept a strange container with high frequency signal, probably a relic of some sort; so Bumblebee had to pick the three humans up. They arrived and arrive at base only to see a femme curled up on the stacks, sound asleep. Ratchet hushed them as to not wake the femme up as the kids and Bumblebee only nodded quietly and went to the human area.

Lightblade slowly online her optics only to realise she had unintentionally fallen into recharge. Sitting up straight and adjusting her vision, she saw the yellow bot waving at her. :-Hello! You were in recharge when we came by not too long ago so we didn't wake you up! The kids are at the human lounge.-: He beeped while pointing towards the human area. Lightblade nodded and smiled as she and Bumblebee walked towards where the children are.

"Hello there!" Ioa greeted the kids as they greeted her back. Miko was snickering as she showed them a photo of Lightblade fast asleep. Lightblade noticed and stuttered as she pleads Miko to delete the embarrassing footage, earning a laughter from Miko and two face-palming boys as they watch their friend humiliating the poor femme. They heard a growl from the grumpy medic, obviously not happy with the commotion so early in the morning.

"Must you guys be so loud? Don't you all have anything else better to do?" he said, moody as always. Miko rolled her eyes and showed him the picture of Lightblade fast asleep in the stacks. "Don't be such a downer Doc! Look! It's Lightblade sleeping on the stacks! How cute is that?" she giggled, making Lightblade blush as she hid her faceplate in her servos. Ratchet took a look at the picture and stopped dead in his tracks, looking at the picture closely. Lightblade was indeed adorable in the picture as much as Ratchet hates to admit. She was curled up on the stacks as she hugged her datapad, recharging peacefully. Ratchet smiled, making everyone looking at him incredulously. "Ratchet smiled! He does cares!" Miko said amusedly as Bumblebee beeped in agreement. The red and white medic could only roll his optics and turned his back as he continued his work, hiding his flushed faceplate from them.

Screeching tires could be heard as Arcee and Bulkhead drove in the base before transforming. "Hey Jack." Arcee greeted her charge as he went to see her. "Hey Cee. Where were you this morning?" He asked. "Out on a mission actually. We managed to retrieve a container, more like a box actually." She said as Bulkhead handed the item to the Doc bot. Bulkhead was greeted with his charge's whining as he laughed sheepishly trying to comfort the Japanese girl as to why he didn't bring her along.

Lightblade decided to help Ratchet and she followed him as he went and set the box next to the computer as he attached some wires to it. Sensing her presence, he turned to her and spoke. "This box will be left here for monitoring until Optimus gets back, then we open it. For now, I'll just monitor it for the time being." He said as she nodded understandingly. He went to the computers and typed something as the screen changed into schematics and the computer starts downloading the information from the box. She and Ratchet watched as the download was completed and he reads the information, only to find nothing but the box's name.

SCR-4P-137

ERROR NOT FOUND.

Lightblade felt something's off as there was no information regarding the box. While Lightblade and Ratchet was busy thinking of the strange box, Optimus arrived back at base. Transforming into biped mode, his thunderous pedsteps could be heard as he went to Ratchet and Lightblade. "What seems to be a problem old friend? Lightblade?" he said as he saw their confused expression. Ratchet shook his helm in confusion as he explained the situation to Optimus.

"Bulkhead and Arcee went and retrieved a box that was emitting high frequency and brought it back to base. I figured I should download its data to understand it more while waiting for your return. The download was complete but there's no information about it except its name." Ratchet explained, puzzled as he tries to decode the box again, only to get the similar results.

"Damn this primitive technology! If I had my equipments back in Cybertron I'll be able to decode this in nanoseconds!" He grumbled as he continued tinkering. Rafael sat down near the computer as he starts to download the box's data into his laptop, trying to help Ratchet. Sadly, Rafael too came up with the same results. Lightblade quietly went in front of the computers and typed something as Ratchet grumbled.

"I've tried everything Ioa! What are you-" Ratchet was cut off as the computer beeped and all the information popped up the screen. Stepping aside, Lightblade motioned her servos at the screen as she explained what went wrong. "You forgot to use the Reverse-and-Erase Quantum Decoding Ratchet." She said softly, making Ratchet shocked and dare he say impressed.

"H-How? That method is-" "The advanced decoding technique, founded by Soundwave himself." Lightblade said, making everyone go quiet at the name of the Decepticons TIC. "Although I was their Vehicons' medic, I learn a few things from Soundwave because I was needed to tend after the Decepticons' mistake. Sometimes I had to check the surveillance overnight and run some decoding for him. If any of the decoding went haywire, usually the Vehicons' error, I would shoulder the blame, although I always made sure all of it is okay before submitting." Lightblade said as she remembered how ST-33V and R4-1N, the Vehicons in charge of decoding, would always put the blame on her when they did something wrong. Lightblade only kept quiet as she gets punished by either Starscream or worse, Lord Megatron himself.

Snapping out of her negative thoughts, she smiled at them. "It's okay now! At least I could put it to good use now!" she said. Optimus nodded as he praised her. "Good job Ioa, your expertise in decoding will very much be useful to us." He said. They were cut off when the box overloaded and exploded, releasing its contents.

It's a trap box. More specifically, a scraplet trap box.

Ratchet all but shrieked, a manner very unlikely of him. "Gah!!" He screamed as the box's content flew at him. Hundreds of scraplets went after him, making him as their appetizer. Team Prime went into frenzy as they all tried to run away from the wretched vermin. The humans went and grabbed the newly replaced fire extinguisher after the previous scraplet scene. They stocked up more of it and now having to use it again for these metal eaters.

The scraplets were reaching Ratchet when suddenly it stopped mid-air. The bots turned around and realised the scraplets were all in frozen-like state in mid-air. Ratchet saw that everybot was on the other side of the base, except for Lightblade who was calmly holding up a device. She calmly opened a groundbridge as she commanded the immobile scraplets into the groundbridge with her. She brought all the scraplets to Antartica and release her hold on them. The scraplets turned and opened their jaws at her wanting to feast on her, only for them to freeze and drop to the snowy ground. Lightblade's body was sending her signals, warning her about her processing system going down but she ignored it as she went back to base. Only when she was back to base and scanned everyone quickly as she made sure none were harmed, did her peds buckled as she finally collapsed and passed out.  

A/N: Hello! So not gonna lie but that was pretty fun to write! Now to answer your questions.

 Firstly, this takes place after the Scrapheap episode, that's why the kids knew how to react. The scraplet trap model will be explained next chapter as to why didn't the scraplets chew their way out. Trust me, I'll explain everything. By the way, did you get the references? Leave a comment down below!

Secondly, the decoding technique is purely made up. I have not an ounce of clue on decoding and hacking stuff. Also, ST-33V and R4-1N are jerks.

Lastly, how badass Lightblade was with handling the situation? I'll get into her character more as the story goes, so stay tune! As always, stay safe and healthy! Enigma signing out.