Nightmares and Monsters

Part 15

Prime Voiceover:

Earth, birthplace of the human race, a species much like our own, capable of great compassion and great violence.

For in our quest to protect the humans, a deeper revelation dawns.

Our worlds have met before.

For the last two years, an advance team of new Autobots has taken refuge here under my command.

Together, we form an alliance with the humans, a secret but brave squad of soldiers.

A classified strike team called NEST.

We hunt for whatever remains of our Decepticon foes hiding in different countries around the globe.

New Jersey, USA 0914 hrs (13 hours behind Shanghai), September 8th, 2009

I sat watching the news that was being broadcast over one of the NEST Command video feeds as all of us with clearance watched the Op in Shanghai go down on the others. It always amazed me how some Govenrments would do anything to cover slag up, but I had to hand it to the Chinese... "Toxic Spill" that was a rather good cover, but only if we could keep the enemy contained and out of the public view.

-"Newsflash from the BBC. Breaking news out of Shanghai. There's been a major toxic spill in the Shanghai factory district. We're staying on top of this developing story for you. We will bring you any new information as we get it."-

{"Yeah,"} I thought to myself as I watched and listened along with the Communication Techs and Jazz's Holoform. {"...they'll get the information we feed them and hope that they fall for it."} went my brain as it watched as the Black Hawks were told that they could drop off their load of troops.

As the radio chatter merged slightly I jumped when Jazz's Holoform gently touched my arm and asked with a slightly worried look, "Yer feeling a'ight Cali? Yer seem ta be driftin' somewha', and ah dun wan' da Hatchet ta dent mah helm again, because ah let yer get ill now."

Patting his arm, I smiled back at him to reassure him. "Ahm fine Jazz. Jus' a lil' bit tired from all we've had ta do the past few months, especially wit' da trainin' of the newbies before dey meet up with Lennox and Epps. Yer also know da 'Cons 'ave been sneaky 'bout where dey been attacking 'round da world, and this makes the sixth time in a year, that's one battle every two months Jazz, an' it's starting to wear on everyone... includin' meh. Guess we were all caught offguard on da number o' 'Cons here on Earth."

Nodding his head, Jazz hummed a little before giving me a much needed hug of reassurance before he started laughing at what was being broadcast over the main Monitors and radio frequencies.

="Ding-a-ling! Come out and get your ice cream. Any bad robot out there better get ready for an ass-whupping."=

I groaned as I looked over at Jazz who was still laughing hard. "Whose idea was it ta send those two idiots on this mission? They can't even blend in right and are more than likely gonna mess this mission up and no amount of begging is gonna help us or them if this goes pear-shaped." as I pointed to the garish form of a pink ice cream truck with a sticker on one side that said "Decepticons Suck My Popsicle!"

Jazz looked at me and sighed as he composed himself, "If yer must know it was mah idea ta send dem. Dey need da experience, and dat's neva gonna happen if dey don' get ta go on any missions. Prime also said it might be a good thing fer dem ta learn dis way. Although dey coulda chosen a bettah disguise den dat." he agreed as he shuddered at the picture of the vehicle they were supposed to be.

My mind was brought back to what was happening on the monitors when I heard Lennox speak.

"All right, Ironhide. We got echoes. They're close. Steel stacks at 2 o'clock."

We all heard Ironhide transform behind Lennox over the radio mics before we heard his deep gruff voice, "He's here. I smell him."

We watched through Lennox's video camera on the side of his helmet as he walked over to where Epps and a couple of others were crouched down with a Thermal Energy Reader.

"Oh, no." came the voice of Epps over the mics and at that I felt a shiver go down my spine, the same kind of shiver that I had had during the attack of our Base in Qatar in 2007.

"What have you got?" came the voice of Lennox as his helmet camera showed us what Epps had on his thermal imaging scanner. "Thermal ripple." came Epps' reply, and looking through the feed from the helmet cameras we all shuddered when we saw the massive form on the scanners screen. Whatever this 'Con was, it was BIG.

"Right, everybody, be steady. We're right on top of it." said Lennox as everyone on his team crept forward slowly and thats when all Pit broke loose.

"Eagle niner! I need an energy proton." came the call from Lennox as he rn to grab a team member that had just missed being hit by one of the steel pipes that were stacked.

"Panther 1, requesting fire mission now!" came the request from Epps as they ran to get clear as the Massive 'Con rolled out of their rifle range and headed towards the main freeway - definately not good.

"Gunships on station. Roll in hot!" came the response from General Morshower and shortly after that we all heard, "Dog 1, now we are engaging. We got a second Decepticon." and we looked towards the screen that had the camera on the underside of the Black Hawk that was providing air support.

"Arcee twins! Target coming your way!" yelled Lennox through the Comm. Links and we all sighed in relief at the idea of Arcee going after the 'Con , that we now knew to be Sideways according to Jazz.

What the others weren't expecting was for the Twins - Mudflap and Skids to completely frag up their part in this plan. "I got him, I got him!" came Mudflaps response and shortly afterwards we heard him say, "I screwed that up. I'm okay. I'm all right."

What came next made Jazz shake his Holoform's head in embarrassment. "This is combat, man. Total brain freeze, man." from Mudflap and then the sudden, "What's wrong with you?" and a slap across the back of Mudflaps helm from his twin Skids.

I truly sighed with relief when I heard Lennox call out over the Comms. "Bring in Sideswipe!"

"Clear a path!" came Sideswipe's voice as we watched the live feed from the Black Hawks circling overhead as their cameras recorded everything that was happening. We saw Sides literally jump in the air do a somersault over Sideways slamming his blade into the hood of the 'Cons Alt. Mode before shooting him with his shoulder mounted guns, landing in front of the 'Con and grabbing his blade before literally slicing Sideways in half.

Jazz sniggered, yes he sniggered when the next thing said by Sideswipe was, "Damn, I'm good!" All I could do was face-palm at the fact that he took my line that was used when I beat Jazz on 'Left 4 Dead 2' and took out a Hunter with a Katana in one swipe.

.I apologized to Jazz and the rest of the Techs in the room and walked out after asking Jazz to let me know what happened next as I walked outside for some fresh air before getting a mug of coffee and heading back inside and the finale of the chase around Shanghai. Stress was definitely not a good friend to any of us.

End Part 15