Cybertron's Outcasts; The Crash Landing

Chapter Twenty Five- The Heat Of Battle

    "We're not autobots."
    Gearend knew that the decepticon would never listen to him, but he could at least try. The silver decepticon shot at him and Harvenger's pedes, causing both of them to jump back. He thought he even heard Compton screech.
    As soon as the silver decepticon shot at them, the autobots jumped into action. Guns blazing, all of them ran at the decepticons. The decepticons, in turn, began to fire on them. Red and blue plasma fire seared the air, coming dangerously close to the Fire Light.
    "What do we do?" Harvenger asked, shifting one of his servos into a blaster, "We can't just stand here and watch."
    "This isn't our war..." Compton mumbled, "If we go against the decepticons, the consequences..."
    "I don't really care if this is our war or not," Gearend said, "This ship is ours. I don't care if the decepticons think that they can take it with no actually identifiable reason, they can think again."
    "So what are we gonna do?" Harvenger asked again.
    "Defend the ship." Gearend said, "Beelzebub is still down there, and so is Hawthorn. They would kill us if the decepticons were responsible for their deaths."
    "That doesn't make any sense, but I'm with you."
    The three bots positioned themselves closer to the ship, catching and killing vehicons before they got anywhere close.
    None of them had real weapons, only the weak ones that they used in close quarters, but they needed to use them for now.
    As they defended the back of their ship, they watched in awe as the autobots easily took down every vehicon they came across. A few were even grappling with the recognizable decepticons. Sure, they knew that the other team had been fighting the decepticons for hundreds of years, but they made it look so easy.
    They watched as Bulkhead tried to slam into the taller silver mech, who Gearend later learned was Megatron.
    Megatron reacted with violence, slashing his sword to combat the wreckers mace. The decepticon leader threw several hits, and so did the green wrecker. They were soon stuck in an endless loop of uselessly thrown punches.
    Ratchet and Bumblebee kept going after Shatterblade, who Gearend knew. She was a good fighter and continued to dodge the autobots as they came at her, they were only able to get a few hits in before she threw them away from striking range.
    The femme went after the other seeker. Arcee seemed to hold some kind of different anger towards Starscream that no one seemed to want to share with the group.
    The other three continued to take down vehicon as they got closer. Luckily for them, Gearend always kept a blaster in his subspace. They continued to attack, Harvenger and Gearend standing closer to the ship's cargo hold, Compton running around in his feline form slashing bots to pieces.
    In the heat of the battle, Megatron charged up his blaster and pointed it at Bulkhead.
    "Tell me, wrecker," Megatron seethed as he tossed the wrecker aside, "Where is the prime?"
    Bulkhead didn't say anything, just glanced at the ship for not even a millisecond then looked back to Megatron. But the warlord noticed.
    Instead of shooting the wrecker, he turned his cannon and pointed at the ship. He shot the weapon, the bullet striking the roof of the ship. As it did so, it caused the entire ship to lurch forward with a deafening screech.
    "Oh slag..." Harvenger mumbled, looking to the ship with horror in his optics.
"What's going on out there?!" They heard Beelzebub yell through the comm, "The ship is tilting quite dangerously! If we don't move now we can lose the ship! And not to mention Optimus, Hawthorn and I are still inside!"
"Give us a second," Bulkhead yelled as he shot forward, knocking Megatron's aim away from the ship, "The decepticons are back!"
                                                                                    -!=!-
Beelzebub felt her tank churning as she tried to move her unconscious friend into a safer position. She assumed that their ship had been shot, and if it took another shot....
"Optimus," Beelzebub said, looking up to the prime, who was still dangling, "What are we going to do? If the ship is shot again, we could fall deeper into the water."
"I will attempt to pull you up." Optimus said, looking back towards the surface.
The prime looked up for some kind of vantage point, but saw very few. There was the other side of the doorframe he was dangling from, or the door closely above it. He decided to take the risk of letting go for a few seconds to reach the opposite door frame.
Beelzebub felt the rope loosen momentarily, causing her helm to shoot up to the prime. Optimus had grabbed the doorframe, but just barely.
This was a horrible idea, Beelzebub thought, then got another idea. A very dangerous idea. She took a deep breath, the mask over her intake filtering water out.
"I have an idea," Beelzebub called up to the prime, "But it's a dangerous one."
Optimus nodded, willing to listen. But Beelzebub didn't say anything. She knew that Optimus had a martyr reputation, and he would stop her if he could.
Beelzebub untied the rope from her shoulder plating, which caused Optimus to raise an optic ridge.
"What are you doing?" Optimus questioned, there was no anger in his voice, it was just concern.
"Doing what we came down here to do," Beelzebub said as she fastened the rope around Hawthorn's shoulder plating and wing joints, "Saving my friend."
"I would not advise that." Optimus tried.
"I can climb back out," Beelzebub said, shaking her helm, "I've done it before."
    Optimus thought about it for a moment. He hardly knew the youngling, she seemed off to him, just like her friends. But there was something in them that made him feel like he needed to protect them, maybe it was just because they were young? He didn't know. But the thought of letting one of them die in a selfless act? That was not something that he would support.
    "That is not a good decision, Beelzebub." Optimus said, "I cannot allow it."
    "I don't think we have a choice." Beelzebub said.
    She jinxed it. As soon as she finished her sentence, another shot struck the ship. Optimus almost lost his grip on the door frame and the rope. Since the rope was no longer attached to her, Beelzebub fell back, grabbing onto a chair to keep her balance.
    "Slag," Beelzebub mumbled as she turned her helm to look into the abyss beyond the windshield, "That's a long fall."
    "The decepticons are getting unruly out here!" Beelzebub heard Gearend yell through the comm, "Are there any more autobots out there?"
    "Two." Ratchet said, "One's off-world and the other is back at base. But if we call her, there will be no way to get back."
    They knew that groundbridges were crucial transportation for the warriors, they didn't use them, but had studied them vaguely a few times.
    "They need help out there." Beelzebub said, pulling herself back up, holding steadily onto one of the work stations in case another bullet struck the Fire Light.
    "I am not allowing you to stay here." Optimus said sternly.
    "We really don't have a choice here," Beelzebub reasoned, "Plus, I'm not an autobot, you aren't my superior. Meaning that you can't order me around."
    She had a point. He wasn't technically allowed to order her around.
    "Pull Hawthorn up and get out of here before the ship gets struck again" Beelzebub said, "I'll climb out behind you."
    Optimus nodded, figuratively kicking himself for actually listening to what Beelzebub told him to do. He pulled the seeker up, lugging the youngling onto his back. He decided that it would be the more convenient way to transport the seeker safely.
    He glanced back down one more time before pulling himself upwards. It was so much easier to get out of the water when he wasn't silently panicking. By using the magnetizing padding in his pedes, Optimus was able to get out of the murky and cold water and back onto the semi-dry floor.
    With the seeker on his back, the prime made the decision to not jump out of the cargo bay hatch, he would climb out of the broken weapons bay dome that Beelzebub had spoken about earlier. It was difficult, since the prime was about three times the size of the younglings that manned the ship. As he got into the roof, he saw that the autobots were losing the battle, but luckily for him, the younglings were closer to the exit of the ship, keeping the decepticons away from it.
    He could leave the seeker with them and join the battle. Though it was difficult, the prime moved stealthily down the side of the cave. He scaled the rocks with ease, moving quickly towards solid ground. He thanked Primus silently as his pedes met solid ground.
    "Optimus." Harvenger said, stepping aside to talk to the prime, "We aren't gonna win this battle."
    "Take your friend," Optimus said, dropping the seeker into her friend's arms, "I will see what I can do about the decepticons."
    Harvenger stepped aside again, leaning his unconscious friend against a rock. The prime stepped forward, his battle mask slipping over his intake and his servos shifting into weapons. One a sword, the other a blaster. He then stepped forward, destroying every vehicon in his wake.
    As he did, the autobots felt the scales of the battle shift in their favor. Maybe they would win this battle after all.

(E.
This one was a bit longer than the other ones but that's okay. Maybe I should write longer chapters more often? I dunno.
No one tell Hawthorn that she touched the prime, she would never wash her hands again 🤣
I hope you liked the new chapter!
Love y'all!
-Smoothie)