Ruby - Origins - Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

A Special Case

At the beginning of the third week of her stay, Ruby was startled awake. Not by an alarm clock, but an ear-shattering siren that filled the entire military base. 

She rushed to get dressed, throwing on skinny jeans and a vest. She ran into the frenzy outside. Soldiers ran in every direction, shouting in code so Ruby didn't have a clue about what they were saying. 

Air craft and land buggies whizzed around all over the place, the sounds of engines drowning out other noise above the siren. Ruby hadn't got a clue what to do. And how was the sun already this hot? It was barely six a.m.

 Tyrese appeared out of the fray; "We need to go to the communications office!" he shouted over the racket.

Ruby nodded in response and followed him.

All the autobots were there, and it was chaos. People were shouting to each other, typing frantically on computers and avoiding being trodden on by Sideswipe, who paced. 

Major Lennox hurried over to Ruby and Tyrese when he saw them.

"What on earth is going on?" Ruby asked, struggling to raise her voice over the alarm.

"A security breach," replied Lennox, who had no trouble as he was used to shouting. Tyrese gasped, and his face turned deadly serious, a look Ruby had never seen him wear before. It scared her.

"Where?" Tyrese asked. Ruby looked from him to Major Lennox; their expressions bringing fear bubbling up in her stomach.

"The vault; the shard is gone." Major Lennox sounded furious.

Tyrese swore and then ran off, disappearing into the flurry of people. Major Lennox turned away too; he climbed up onto the platform, appearing to be waiting for something.

Ruby made her way to the autobots. Ironhide held out his hand to her, so she could climb up and talk with them properly at eye level.

"Ruby," began Optimus, "We are waiting for your government's acceptance to fly out to Philadelphia, where we will then split into two teams. The rest of the N.E.S.T team are going to another Military base."

"Why? What's going on there?" asked Ruby.

"Decepticons," replied Optimus darkly, "They are suddenly making an appearance everywhere, and they are all going towards Philadelphia. Sam is there, we need to protect him."

"The guy who helped destroy the cube? Isn't he with Bumble Bee?" Ruby was getting more confused.

"No, he went to college, and Bumble Bee is on his way to meet us, he doesn't know that the shard has been stolen. We must get to Sam, before Megatron."

Megatron. Ruby trembled at the name.

The alarms stopped going off, and Major Lennox called for everyone's attention.

"We've gotten the go-ahead," he said, "Wheels up in twenty, autobots to the left runway to be prepped for flight." He continued to address the other soldiers present whilst the autobots transformed into vehicles and left.

"Ruby, over here," called Optimus, before he transformed. Ruby took it that she was meant to go with them. She took one last look at the chaos before climbing up into the cab of the huge Peterbilt Truck.

The colossal eight-engine plane that Ruby had moved around the airfield during her ability testing was starting up. Its rear ramp was down and men were there to secure the autobots for the flight. 

Optimus didn't stop to allow Ruby to get out until they were in the aircraft. She jumped out of the red and blue truck and sat down on one of the benches; it was not unlike the plane she had first been on when she had arrived at the base with Ironhide, only this one was much, much bigger. 

There was room for over fifty soldiers, parachutes, weapons, and the vehicles. Ruby felt a bit out of place, in her simple, ordinary clothing, whilst the soldiers surrounding her were in full military gear. She'd never signed any contract or filled in an application or anything, so she wasn't bound to do or wear anything. She'd just done as she'd been told. She was 'a special case,' they said. 

The plane took off. Ruby stared pointedly at the autobots, strapped down, still and silent. What would happen when they landed? Would there be decepticons? Would she have to fight?