Escaping Reality

Chapter Twenty-Three: Operation Sneak-a-con

"So here's the plan." Katrina was quick to kick off their presentation to the bots, tail lashing in excitement as she began to walk around. "There's gonna be an SOS in a few, and Knockout's gonna drive off into a groundbridge! Wheejack and Arcee will be busy, so right before then, we send Bee up with me, Smokey, and Titanium, and Bee gets captured and we have this flash drive and we download our coordinates and boom! Escape plan!"

         Unfortunately, her proposal was at first only greeted by stunned silence.

         "...Uh, Kat, there was more in there I'm pretty sure," Darkfin noted, the Sharktacon both amused and concerned by her friend's enthusiasm. "Plus we gotta remember Jinx's condition. She's in a coma right now, and if she's awake, then I don't know what her condition is. You've gotta be careful."

         "That, and an invasion of the Deception warship is beyond dangerous," Ratchet pointed out, very unhappy with Katrina's seemingly go lucky attitude. "You all could get yourselves captured or even killed up there!"

         "And I'm still getting captured," Bumblebee beeped, not sounding too happy about that bit.

         "Here. Let me try." Starblade then stepped up to the front, attempting to smooth over any concerns the Autobots had. "The others will be in our holoforms, including Smokescreen. When Bee transforms, Team Recon fall out the back and run and hide. We're all Cybertronian, so the fall won't hurt, and Bee's attack should distract them enough from seeing the others as they run and hide. After that, Recon snoops around and at the very least gets those coordinates. The goal is to enact both a rescue mission and get our information. It'll be difficult, but it should work. Katrina and Smokescreen may be hyped up, but they both know how to calm down and get serious when they need to."

          More silence, though this time it looked like the odds were in their favor, more or less. "And just how will we fetch them from the warship?"

         "They drop the shields and let you grab their location," Starblade replied, acknowledging Ratchet's concerns.

         "Uh, I don't mean to interrupt," Smokescreen shuffled forward, the bit swaying side to side a tad. "But are we sure this team-up'll work? I know some of you guys have been having memory problems." The rookie's optics traveled over each Quotevian present, but they lingered mostly on Katrina, something of which she noticed yet only acknowledged with a confused tilt of her helm.

         "Yeah, actually. And those memory problems are one reason why we planned things out the way we did!" Once again, Katrina stepped up, now trying to mimic Starblade's calmer demeanor. "The Blade Twins' backstories will mess with them if they're on the warship, which is why they're not going. And Darkfin isn't built for stealth, so that leaves me and Titanium. You've run around the warship before though, so you'll kinda be our guide! That's what we were thinking."

         Deciding that made more sense, Smokescreen gave the group a nod, the bot coming to stand beside them while the other Autobots had a mental debate about it all.

         "...You really think this will work?"

         "It's our best shot."

         "...Fine. Get ready." And get ready they did.

The plan went exactly how they'd wanted it to go, more or less. Narrowly speeding through a groundbridge and falling out of a transforming Bumblebee was much wilder than it sounded, but it was possible, and better yet, Team Recon had gone undetected. After tumbling out of the battle-ready Autobot, Smokescreen, Katrina, and Titaniumwrench had been quick to act, helping each other up and diving for the control panel to hide.